Transformers Prime: Macross Rising
by angelum-tenebrarum
Summary: Adopted from Knightmare Gundam of Ni. Six years after the devastating Unification War, three years after the Autobots' arrival on Earth, Jack Darby falls victim to horrible chance just after his victory in restoring Optimus Prime with the Key to Vector Sigma. Now, the mysterious SMS enters the Cybertronian War, armed with fifteen-year-old secrets and a mysterious war machine.
1. Prologue

**A/N: So this is Macross Rising by Knightmare Gundam of Ni. He allowed me to pick up this story.**

 **The first two chapters are his and I published as close to word by word as possible. There was the occasional mistake that I have a bad habit of making myself.**

 **I'll try to keep it as close to the style he wrote this in, but we do have our differences…**

 **And with that disclaimers and enjoy.**

 **Either I or Knightmare Gundam of Ni don't the rights to Robotech and Transformers Prime. The rights go to Harmony gold or wait… Sony now and Hasbro, respectfully.**

 **The cover image isn't mine, also.**

* * *

 **Transformers Prime: Macross Rising**

 **Prologue**

 **Decepticon SpaceBridge Chamber, Earth  
** **January 22, 2014 A.D.**

I hurried into the Spacebridge portal, Arcee revving before me. The swirling green vortex consumed her, and then me. The dizzying sensation of the portal was present for only a moment, and when I came out, it was to see Arcee tackling Megatron himself, and Optimus – or, Orion as he knew himself now – climbing to his feet with his back towards me.

After glancing at the fight before him, the amnesiac Prime turned to look at me, as I held the Key to Vector Sigma, the frail-looking device glowing with power.

"Are you…" It was strange to see him so hesitant…a stark contrast to his certainty as Optimus Prime…and strangely familiar. Ratchet was right. Orion Pax was like me…and I like him. "…certain I am worthy?"

"You have no idea." I replied, holding the key up higher. A beam of energy trailed from it, flowing onto Orion's chest for a moment, before the plates shifted away, revealing the Matrix of Leadership within. I watched as the energy flowed, and saw Orion's hesitant expression morph into the stern expression of Optimus Prime. The Key floated swiftly out of my hand, up to Optimus, who reached up and held it between two of his massive fingers.

I heard a thudding gait, and turned to see Megatron charging for Optimus. He leaped, blade extending out from beneath his Fusion Cannon.

" **NO!"** He roared, striking down at Optimus' back.

And then, in a moment that I would forever know as 'the raddest thing ever' (as Miko would say) Optimus whirled about, and grabbed Megatron's blade in both hands!

"Megatron…Begone!" He growled, drawing his hand back as his faceplate slid into position, slamming Megatron with a punch that threw him twenty feet back, the Decepticons' leader colliding with the cavern wall. With that blow, the Autobots seemed revitalized, the entire team reassembling around Optimus like he never left.

My heart swelled with joy.

"Ratchet, how did we arrive here?"

"Long story, old friend." Ratchet's relief was rather audible.

"Base to Arcee, we're reading five Autobot life signs there, Is Prime with you?"

"And Jack."

I heard the sighs of relief coming from my friends and my mom over the commlink.

And then, I saw Megatron's arm reach up, and claw at the walkway leading to the Spacebridge.

Saw his Fusion Cannon glow with Energon.

Megatron's head wasn't even above the walkway. I was behind Arcee and Optimus, almost completely shielded by their legs. It was a one-in-a-million shot.

I guess it was that one.

One second, the joy was being replaced with instinctual fear, the-fight-or-flight instinct turning to fight.

Another, unbearable heat. Pain. Agony. And screaming.

My screaming

The pain and screaming seemed to last hours, maybe days. Occasionally, it seemed my screams lessened enough for me to hear other conversations.

"Jack! Oh my god, Jack!"

"Raf, look away!"

"We've got to get him to a hospital!"

Hours more of agony. Brief snippets of speech.

"-ird-degree burns over more than two-thirds-"

Burning.

"-damage, high chances of developing cancer, if he lives that long-"

Suffering.

"-urological damage, likely to be tetraplegic-"

Crippled.

From what little I could tell through the haze of pain, it didn't seem likely my life was going to be pleasing from now on. Thankfully, the haze of pain soon dissipated…only to be replaced by the haze caused by what appeared to be a ludicrous amount of pain medication. I could tell because everything was numb.

From that point on, I drifted in and out of consciousness. Occasionally, I came to, to see white hospital walls and sheets. Sometimes, there was someone by my bed. Mom. Miko. Raf. One time, I saw Arcee staring in through the window. Never long though, since I lost consciousness just as often, and as quick.

I don't know how long I was, maybe days, weeks, hell, it might have months, nut I felt myself waking up, clarity in my head for once in ages. And pain. Minor aches, mostly, but it was growing steadily worse.

"Mr. Darby. Mr. Darby, can you hear me?" Mu vison was still fuzzy. All I could make out were what looked like two black blobs in front of me, contrasting with the white hospital décor. My vision cleared up a little more every second though, and soon I could make out two men who perfectly fit the Men In Black secret-agent-type, from the stiff-looking suits and ties to the shades and little flesh-colored earpieces.

"Mr. Darby?"

"I hear you." Damn. My voice was _rough_.

"Mr. Darby, we have an offer for you. Before you accept, allow me to explain your situation."

I was listening.

"You are in the critical care ward of Jasper General Hospital. Approximately seventy-two percent of your body is covered in third-degree burns and the rest is second-degree, with an area on the back of your head with 'only' a first-degree burn. Radiation damage to your nervous system has effectively made you a tetraplegic. You can't move your arms and legs."

He was right. I couldn't.

"The doctors are predicting that the radiation exposure has made developing cancer of one type or another virtually certain."

Crappy cherry on top of a shit.

"I am here to offer you a chance to escape that."

Say what? I stared blankly for a second, before it turned into a scornful glare.

"I expected that. However, this is no joke, no cruel prank." He reached within his jacket, withdrawing a card and holding it in front of me.

 **N** ew **U** nited **N** ations

 **S** pecial **M** ilitary **S** ervice

"I belong to a special NUN organization that has spent the past fifteen years developing new technologies – and my superiors believe you are a candidate for one of them. I have to warn you of the consequences: you'll lose your body. Your friends and mother will think you're dead. And you may lose your memories for a while for a while."

"…h-how…"

"It'll be a surgical operation. Removing your brain and placing it in a cybernetic war machine. You will effectively become government property. But you'll get to live, to move, and in ways that weren't possible, even before your…injury. And provided all goes well, you'll regain your memories soon enough."

I hesitated. It was a tough thing, to sign over your life to the government. For any reason, even in a position like mine. Then the other man spoke.

"You'll get to work with the Autobots. To help them in battle."

I closed my eyes. There it was. That wonderful, beautiful bait. A promise, of that joy of success again.

"I'll do it."

There was a quiet rustle, and I opened my eyes to see the second agent inserting a syringe needle into the IV. Within a minute, my vision darkened, and the heart monitor, unobtrusive in the background, started to beep frantically, before giving a dead tone as I fell unconscious.

For the longest time, all was the familiar, blissful dark of unconsciousness. Then, it was a void

A dark forbidding void.

Am I dead?

* * *

…

…

 **BOOTING CYBERNETIC NUERO-CAPSULE…**

 **TESTING NEURO-CIRCUITRY CONNECTIONS…**

 **TESTING DATA-RECEPTOR CONNECTIONS  
CONNECTIONS ESTABLISHED**

 **TESTING COMMAND CONNECTIONS…  
CONNECTIONS ESTABLISHED**

 **TESTING PROCESSING CONNECTIONS…  
CONNECTIONS ESTABLISHED**

 **ALL NEURO-CIRCUITRY CONNECTIONS ESTABLISHED**

 **FORMATTING …  
SELECTIVE FORMAT IN PROGRESS…**

 **FORMAT COMPLETE**

 **UPLOADING BOOT RESULTS TO SMS_COMMAND**

 **AWAITING COMMAND**

* * *

"Jack? Jack, can you hear us?"

"It's no use. Look like his memories and personality were wiped in the format."

"Damn it…I'd hoped he was young enough to adapt…"

"Well, he's working out much better than the previous volunteer. Sure, there's the memory and personality loss, but the neuro-capsule's circuit connections to his brain seem to be functioning…I wonder what results we could get by using the Esquival kid…"

"None! The Ethics Committee would never sanction any attempt to acquire Rafael Esquival for this procedure! Lieutenant Fokker would skin us alive! And more importantly, _**I**_ would never condone such a thing!"

"Y-yes sir! My apologies, I-I was just wondering aloud!"

"See to it that you don't 'wonder' anymore…hmph…well, we've gone this far. It'd be insulting to Mr. Darby's sacrifice not to utilize this unfortunate turn of events to acquire as much data as possible. Upload the project files and run the update installation. If he takes that well upload the HVT files as well."

* * *

…

 **RECEIVING**

…

…

 **DOWNLOADING FILE "SMS/PROJECT/VALKRIE/VF_0_PHOENIX"…**

 **DOWNLOADING…**

 **DOWNLOADING…**

 **DOWNLOAD COMPLETE**

 **INSTALLING SYSTEMS UPDATE…**

 **INSTALLING "VF-0 COMMAND INTERFACE"…**

 **INSTALLING "CYBERTRONIAN INTERACTION PROGRAM"…**

 **INSTALL COMPLETE**

 **DOWNLOADING FILE "SMS/HIGH_VALUE_TARGET/DECEPTICONS  
DOWNLOADING FILE "SMS/HIGH_VALUE_TARGET/AUTOBOTS**

 **DOWNLOAD COMPLETE**

 **AWAITING COMMAND…**

* * *

"Huh. Look at that. He's soaking it up like a sponge."

"Well I'll be damned. Let's see how far we can take this…activate external connections A12 through X9, route the connection to the simulation servers, and input the command to run the simulation programs sequentially. Run real-time readouts of it too."

"Aye, aye sir."

* * *

 **RECEIVING…**

…

 **EXTERNAL CONNECTIONS ESTABLISHED**

 **NETWORK/SMS_SIMULATION SERVER**

 **RUNNING PROGRAM "SMS/PROJECT/VALKRIE/VF_0_PHOENIX/SIMULATION MISSION 001"**

…

 **PROGRAM COMPLETE**

 **RUNNING PROGRAM "SMS/PROJECT/VALKRIE/VF_0_PHOENIX/SIMULATION MISSION 002"**

…

 **PROGRAM COMPLETE**

 **RUNNING PROGRAM "SMS/PROJECT/VALKRIE/VF_0_PHOENIX/SIMULATION MISSION 003"**

* * *

"Holy shit…"

"Hah! Wouldn't you know it, the kid pulled through after all!"

"Uh, sir, what do you mean?"

"Look at the Neuro-Capsule readings!"

"…holy-"

"Yep! Way too much data there even for the Neuro-Capsule's operation systems and the uploaded files! His mind has expanded into the capsule's quantum processors! That's why we didn't see it at first!"

"But, then why isn't there any response from him?"

"Well, adapting to an entirely new processing architecture is going to be difficult, I'd normally say impossible, but this _is_ an experimental apparatus we threw together with a witch-docter brew of cybertronian technology and biology with _human_ technology and biology. If I were to guess, he's probably in some kind of lucid dream… or some kind of cybernetic equivalent."

"So…what do we do?"

"Put him through his paces. Run up to Sim Mission 39 and take readings the whole time. I'll go tell General Hayes, and then, well, we'll see."

"He's going to be interested all right, especially after fiasco with M.E.C.H."

"Hm. That's right 'Nemesis Prime'. What a bunch of jokers. Jack here'll knock 'em flat.

* * *

 **LOCATION: NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, NEVADA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, EARTH  
DATE/TIME: AUGUST 5, 2014 A.D./0702 HOURS**

 **UNIT: VF-0S 'PHOENIX HERALD'  
MISSION: AID AUTOBOTS IN DESTROYING DECEPTICON FACILITY 66S AKA 'DARKMOUNT'  
PRIMARY TARGETS: 'DARKMOUNT' FUSION CANNONS, DECEPTICON SPACE WARSHIP 'NEMESIS', HVT-D1, HVT-D2, HVT-D3, HVT-D4**

 **MISSION LOAD-OUT: 1 X GAE-01X ENERGON PULSE CARBINE/3,200 AHEAD ROUNDS, 12 X SEMRAAM MISSLES, 2 X FAST PACK MODULES/24 X SESRAAM MICRO-MISSILES/2 X SPARE CARBINE MAGAZINES**

 **AWAITING GO ORDER…**

* * *

 **A/N on my profile page i have update times, notes and anything i think you need to know. i recommend checking it as frequently as possible.**


	2. From the Ashes

**Transformers Prime: Macross Rising**

 **Chapter One: From the Ashes**

 **Derelict Decepticon Warship** _ **Harbinger**_ **, Earth  
August 5, 2014 A.D., 10:07 AM**

 **UNIT: Autobot Force Omega  
COMMMANDER: Ultra Magnus, Temporary  
MISSION: Disable Darkmount's Fusion Cannons  
PRIMARY TARGET: Darkmount Fusion Cannon Power Core  
MISSION LOAD-OUT: N/A**

It was half of a hulk of ancient, ruined spaceship that the Autobots found themselves using as a base. Starscream's old hideout, back when he was still scrabbling for the scraps the Autobots gave him in return for his information. The knowledge gave Arcee a twisting, acidic feeling of bitterness. They were preparing to begin the mission…in a few moments, Ratchet would open the Groundbridge for Miko, and the Japanese teenager send a phone that, would draw away the vast majority of the Vehicons from Darkmount, allowing Arcee and Bumblebee to move in and infiltrate the fortress.

At the same time, the two Wreckers, Wheeljack and Bulkhead, would engage what was left of

Darkmount's patrols in the open.

Hopefully it would be enough…

Enough to let her in…and find Starscream and Megatron…

 _For Cliffjumper…_

 _For Optimus…_

 _For Jack…_

A pattern of buzzes, clicks and whirs sounded as Bumblebee Patted her on the shoulder, the scout giving her a supporting look.

"Thanks Bee."

The characteristic warping sound of a Groundbridge portal indicated the start of the mission. Arcee readied herself to fight, running a quick diagnostic she took from Ultra Magnus' ship.

It was a high-intensity laser, perfectly capable of melting a Vehicon's armor off of its endostructure.

Arcee wondered what it would do to Megatron's face.

* * *

 **Jasper Outskirts, Nevada, United States of America  
** **10:15 AM**

 **UNIT: SMS Destroid Platoon 'primal'**

 **COMMANDER: First lieutenant [REDACTED], Codename PROPHET**

 **MISSION: Provide support to allied Cybertronian assets 'Autobots' and friendly SMS unit 'Phoenix'**

 **PRIMARY TARGETS: Decepticon installation 66S 'Darkmount', HVT-D1, HVT-D2, HVT-D3, HVT-D4**

 **MISSION LOAD-OUT: 2 x Cheyenne' Medium-Range Squads (2 x 20mm Energon Gatling Guns/250,000 rounds SAPHE, 2 x 5mm Tactical High-Energy Lasers, High-Powered Radar Dome, 2 x 'Spartan' Close-Quarters Combat Squads (Reactive Armor Plating, 2 x High-Frequency Armblades, 2 x Collapsible Ablative Alloy Shields, Secondary Vernier Thruster Packs, 2 x Micro-Missile Launchers/12 x SESRAAM Micro-Missiles)**

It was a cramped, dark place, the cockpit of a Destroid. A claustrophobic would a foaming fit at just hearing of it, and only the slightest of men and women would feel at all comfortable. One would think that such a small space wouldn't have room for complicated control systems, but they'd be wrong. Dozens of buttons, knob, and switched were mounted on two joysticks at the end of parts intended to strap to the pilot's forearm, serving to control the arms and weapons systems while pedals with latches intended to clamp onto the pilot's boots aided in controlling the motor systems. Memorizing these complex controls to be able to operate merely by feel was a task required of all trainees.

 _All-in-all_ , _being a Destroid pilot is like having the worst parts of a tank driver and a jet pilot_. Staff Sergeant 'NOMAD' thought. _Of course, the fact that it's all to pilot a giant robot is a fairly good compensation._ He grinned, flexing his hand around the joystick and watching through the helmet-mounted HUD as the Gatling Guns on his Destroid's arms whirred to life briefly.

A beep and the appearance of a blinking icon on the HUD caught NOMAD's attention.

"Primal Actual to all units. Autobots are beginning operation. Power up from stand-by and prepare to engage Victors, Vipers and Igors." The order came from Prophet, leader of Primal Platoon and Eagle squad."

NOMAD watched as all around his Destroid, visors lit up green and robots with camouflage patterned-skins of tan, brown and dark grey shades began to move. His own squad, Cougar, were formed up behind him in a wedge.

"Squads Ape and Rhino, I want you in front with your shields at the ready. Intercept Victor fire and accelerate to engage in Close-Quarters. Rat, Cougar, track and eliminate approaching Vipers and Igors, support Ape and Rhino. Eagle, ready to provide long-range support."

"Alright Cougars, remember the Sim battles and we out to pull through fine."

"Rowr!" Came the chorus. NOMAD had idea who in his squad decided to make that the unofficial response, but he didn't much.

"Bet I get more kills than you do." 'Psycho', commander of Destroid Spartan Squad Ape, challenged.

"Maybe." NOMAD acknowledged. "But if the Sim data's any indication, Phoenix'll have all of us beat."

"Heh. True."

* * *

 **RECIVING…**

 **GO ORDER RECEIVED**

 **RUNNING PRE-FLIGHT DIAGNOSTIC…**

…

…

 **DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE**

 **PERFORMANCE NOMINAL**

 **ENGAGING REACTION ENGINES**

 **TAXIING TO RUNWAY…**

* * *

 **Nellis Air Force Base  
10:24 Am**

 **UNIT: Alpha Flight, 64** **th** **Aggressor Squadron, 57** **th** **Advisory Tactics Group  
COMMANDER: Agent William Fowler, USA Autobot Liaison, Temporary  
MISSION: Destroy Decepticon Installation 66S AKA 'Darkmount'  
PRIMARY TARGETS: Decepticon Installation 66S 'Darkmount'  
MISSION LOAD-OUT: 6 x F-35E Lightning Strike Fighters, (1 x GAU-22/A 4-Barrled 25mm Gatling Gunpod/300 rounds, 2 x AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Missiles)**

 _Just like being in the army all over again._ Fowler thought to himself. _Hurry up and wait_.

It has been a rush to get authorization to commandeer one of the active flights and his own customized Lightning, throwing all the codeword authentications he needed at the base commander and readying for combat.

Fowler's thoughts were interrupted by the familiar hum of aircraft engines, and he twisted around in his cockpit to see a white jet unlike any he'd seen before taxiing down on of the other runways.

He jammed his finger on the radio.

"Tower! I specifically ordered all aircraft grounded except for Alpha Flight! What is that fighter doing?"

"Sorry Agent Fowler, but that's an SMS unit. We don't have any authority over it."

"SMS? What's a special Military Service unit?" Fowler growled.

"Don't know. They threw all the usual stuff at us, 'Top Secret', 'that's classified', 'Need-to-know', the usual junk."

"Well, dammit, tell them to stop that fighter! If it-" Fowler was interrupted by the howl of said fighter's engines as it accelerated, roaring the runway. In moments, the jet was in the air and flying away. Fowler had to stop and stare at it.

Why in the world would a human jet have green exhaust?

* * *

 **Darkmount, Nevada  
** **10:34**

 **UNIT: Autobot Force Omega, Sub-element 1 (Wheeljack, Bulkhead)  
COMMANDER: Ultra Magnus, temporary  
MISSION: Disable Darkmount's Fusion Cannons  
PRIMARY TARGET: Darkmount Fusion cannon Power Core  
MISSION LOAD-OUT: 1 x Heavy Ion Rifle, 1 x E-Volt Combat Whip, Body-Integrated Blasters and Melee Weapons, Energon Grenades**

"Fire in another hole!" Wheeljack called out lobbing his grenade at the eyesore in front of him. It detonated with a very satisfied 'THOOM' and the Wrecker hid a satisfied grin under his combat mask as he and Bulkhead advanced rapidly.

Moments later, a few dozen Vehicon Seekers descended from Darkmount, blasters blazing and hitting virtually everything but the two Wrecker.

 _Right on time._ Bulkhead thought, firing a shot from the Heavy Ion Rifle. The bolt of energy blasted a Seeker to dust, and he let off a few more rounds as Wheeljack out with the E-Volt whip he took from Ultra Magnus' armory, a contained bolt off electricity slicing through three Seekers in a row.

Transforming his free hand into a blaster, Wheeljack joined Bulkhead in shooting down some more of the silver-painted drones.

Right up until a buzzing sound made them pause.

"Scrap." Wheeljack swore, just as the first of many enormous beetle-like bots landed before them.

"Insecticons. Wasn't Ratchet supposed to draw off?" Bulkhead wondered aloud, before blasting the one in front of them. The shot shattered the 'con's shoulder, depriving it of one of its arms.

Its reaction was to issue the same warbling screech they all did, just as twenty more bugs landed around the Autobots.

The two Wreckers looked at each other.

"Bet you can't kill more than I do." Wheeljack Challenged.

"Hah! You're on!" Bulkhead said, shouldering the rifle and taking aim at the closest Insecticon.

Which then exploded.

None of the cybertronians had the time to check their optics before a line of tan-and-brown mechs slammed into the Insecticon ranks. There were twenty-four, each an angular machine with reverse-jointed legs, heavy-looking armor plates, and enormous gold-glowing blades for arms, with short elbow extensions that ad hands on the ends. Two of the robots had red strips on either side of their heads, one of which was wrestling with an Insecticon in front of them. One of the robots' arms was flipped, the hand on the 'elbow' part was gripped around an Insecticon's head. A single stroke with the other arm decapitated it, and the robot held the head for a moment before crushing it.

Then it turned to them. The Wreckers tensed, ready to bring their weapons.

"Hoy, you guys are Bulkhead and Wheeljack, right?" the asked, pointing to each with an Energon-covered blade. After a second, they nodded. "Great! Staff Sergeant PSYCHO, of the New United Nations' Special Military Service at yours."

"Uh…thanks…but what are you guys-"

"Hold that thought." PSYCHO interrupted Bulkhead, turning to the rest of the robots. "Oy! Cover up! We got Vipers coming in on an assault run!" The robots, even those who hadn't yet finished off their opponent, formed up into a line and raised their arms. Panels there folded out, forming a wall of interlinked shields that fended off the blaster bolts of the flight of Seekers passing by. The robots had been kind enough to make their defensive formation around the Wreckers, Shielding them as well.

And then there was the sound of something ripping, and suddenly the air filled with dozens of tiny streaks of light, that tore through the Seekers. Turning, the two Autobots saw yet more robots, these ones without the armor plating and fitted with Gatling Guns instead of blades, firing on the Seekers. Now, the two 'bots noticed that these machines were rolling forward, and close inspection revealed wheels built their feet.

There were twenty-four more of the Gatling-equipped robots, and just behind them were twelve more that had each had what looked like a tank cannon on their shoulder.

"Huh. Humans?" Wheeljack directed his question at PSYCHO.

"Been so all my life, although the wife would disagree with you."

"What are this things then?"

"Cool."

"Heh. Won't argue there."

* * *

 **Darkmount Airspace, Nevada  
** **10:44**

 **UNIT: Autobot Force Omega, Sub-Element 2 (Ultra Magnus)  
COMMANDER: Ultra Magnus, Temporary  
MISSION: Disable Darkmount's Fusion Cannons  
PRIMARY TARGET: Darkmount Fusion Cannons Power Core  
MISSION LOAD-OUT: 1 x Assault Transport, 1 x Nucleon Battle Rifle, Integrated Blasters and Melee Weapons**

"Fowler, what is he meaning of this?" Ultra Magnus demanded, having opened a commlink to Fowler's fighter.

"Of what?" the agents reply came back.

"There are human forces assaulting Darkmount! There's a platoon of robots attacking the fortress!"

"Say what? Robots?"

"Yes, robots. They say they're of the New United Nations' Special Military Service."

What in the name of Benjamin Franklin's kite is going on here? I just had a SMS fighter take off from this base!"

Shaking his head, Ultra Magnus switched off the link.

 _I'll have to accelerate the plan._ He decided. _Hopefully, the human forces can fend off the Predacon when it's deploy._

Banking his ship, the Autobot Commander landed it on one of the many superfluous-looking spikes extending out from Darkmount, taking his battle rifle and hopping out the hatch before the ship flew away on autopilot. Charging down the spike, Ultra Magnus leaped for a window the scans suggested led to the fortress' power core, blasting the glass out before landing inside the chamber.

Around, Vehicons manned several stations that presumably controlled the Fusion Cannons. He took them down methodically, single shots taking out a single Vehicon until only he lived within the room.

Giving the room an once-over to make sure, Ultra Magnus took aim at the power core-

Only for an energy bolt to blast his rifle out of his hands, and Megatron to land with a floor-shaking impact.

"Ultra Magnus." The warlord greeted. "Allow me to venture: you were attempting to disarm my Fusion Cannons, by disabling their power core."

"Indeed Megatron." The Commander activated his built-in blasters. "And you are standing in my way." Megatron just laughed.

"You think _you_ can defeat _me_? I was fighting in the pits of Kaon before you were sparked! As for the others, you think we were unaware of the scout and the femme, slinking through my fortress? Or do you think that the Wreckers and those charming little human machines will defeat my forces?" Megatron gestured out the window, where swarms of Insecticons and Seekers were approaching the small force.

* * *

 **CONTACTS DETECTED**

 **MATCHING ENERGON/THERMAL SIGNATURES TO DATABASE…**

…

 **RESULTS/FRIENDLY: 60 X SMS DESTROID MODULAR COMBAT ROBOTS  
2 X CYBERTRONIAN ALLIES 'AUTOBOTS'**

 **RESULTS/ENEMY: 27 X AERIAL VEHICON TROOPS, CODE 'VIPER'  
38 X INSECTICON HEAVY ASSAULT TROOPS, CODE 'IGOR'**

 **DESIGNATING TARGETS…**

…

 **TARGETS DESIGNATED**

 **LAUNCHING ORDANCE**

* * *

Both Megatron and Ultra Magnus were shocked when and enormous swarm of missiles appeared, drawing sweeping arcs of contrails through the air as they homed in on targets. It seemed like there were a dozen missiles for every Decepticon in the air, and even when a Seeker or an Insecticon avoided one missile, three more locked in on them and struck, creating a panoply of explosions across the clouded sky.

A mere moment after, the apparent launcher of the missiles appeared.

It was a white jet fighter, with red stripes along the main body and edging the wings. The wings were variable form, capable of sweeping back and forth depending on the lift, and the engines had movable nozzles that could vector the thrust in different directions. Notably, unlike the other human aircraft the two Cybertronians had seen, this one had a smooth metal canopy instead of glass.

"Impressive." Megatron acknowledged. Then he opened up a commlink to the nemesis.

"Deploy the Predacon."

A roar sounded, menacing in its tone and threating to all enemies of the Decepticons.

* * *

Historical records

New United Nations

Formed after the end of the Unification War, the New United Nations is essentially a more centralized and authoritative form of the Twentieth-Century United Nations with more authority over the component countries. Many other nations refused these reforms. The resulting split effectively shattered the UN, and escalating disputes and disagreements led to the outbreak of the war.

While long and destructive, the Unification War ended with the victory of the UN Forces and the defeat and dissolution of the Anti-UN Alliance. The aftermath of the war saw the creation of the New United Nations, which acted quickly in its post-war agenda, reconstructed damaged cities and overseeing humanitarian efforts with military forces and assets seconded by its member nations. Much effort was directed in reparations to former Anti-UN Alliance states, giving the NUN a great public relations boost in those countries.

The New United Nations is a powerful supranational union, with a blanket authority in many areas, and is able to pass and enforce laws that all of its member states must adhere to. These laws are determined by the NUN Parliamentary Assembly, and are enforced by the NUN Security Council, which commands a Peacekeeper force that is composed of units seconded to the NUN by member nations, including US carrier battle groups, UK Army regiments and Russian air wings.

For the most part though, each nation retains its sovereignty, maintaining their own economics.


	3. Old Flames

**A/N: Hello everyone. Here's the first chapter (or third?) of Macross Rising. I'm introducing a group of characters from the Robotech series.**

 **Once more I wish you good read**

* * *

 **NEW CONTACT DETECTED.**

 **MATCHING AUDIO SIGNATURE TO DATABASE**

…

 **RESULTS/ENEMY: HVT-D4 (PREDACON)**

 **PERMISSION TO ENGAGE.**

…

* * *

 **Atlantic sea. Off of the coast of California.  
** **August 5. 2014 A.D. 1045 hours  
** **Bridge to the Aircraft Carrier: Samuels code named 'Phoenix Nest'**

The bridge of the carrier was nothing special, you'd find it in any other carrier its purpose is what makes it special and the fact everyone but the captain was female. It's the command center for all operations concerning the VF-0 fighter aka Phoenix. Lisa Hayes had the pleasure of meeting phoenix once. He reminded her of a boy who's seen too much and is trying to save everyone. Lisa also knows that Phoenix was human and had lost his memories during the transfer. That's what hits Lisa in the heart. He kept saying that he needs protect someone, someone important to him, but he couldn't remember.

Lisa Hayes is a beautiful women, in her early twenties. Her brown hair was long and curled at the ends. Her green eyes only added onto her beauty, and her creamy alabaster skin made it worse. She wore the standard white bridge officers uniform. Even if it was standard most of the men on the carrier say it only accentuates her curves. Much to her disdain.

A message on the screen of the station brought her out of her musings. It was a request from Phoenix to engage the predacon. That was surprising. He's usually good about staying on mission, but she should ask anyways.

"Captain." Her voice matched both her age and beauty.

"Yes, Lisa. What is it?" came the elder gentleman's rough voice.

Lisa looked to her captain for several months now.

Captain Gloval was a seasoned veteran. The captain was tall, tall enough to hit his head on the door frame every time he enters or exits the bridge. His hair was black as one could tell from the mustache on his lip. His skin had a sight tan to it. He dark blues held years of combat experience and wisdom. If one could see it, from how low he has his captain's hat, which was part of the dark blue uniform. The captain was also rather informal when came to ranks below him, usually treating them like friends.

"Captain. Phoenix is requesting to engage the predacon."

"What really?" Came the feminine voice from beside Lisa.

This women is Claudia Grant. She was a dark skinned beauty, of similar age to Lisa. She was a little taller than Lisa. Claudia also had slightly darker hair. She was the communications officer of the bridge, so her uniform was green. She was just as womanly as Lisa but garnered less attention. Mainly, because of the angry lieutenant that would throttle them alive if he saw.

"He's pretty good at staying on mission." Claudia stated what was in Lisa's mind.

"I thought the same thing, so I'm curious as to why."

The captains folded his hands together and placed his fore head against. While it may have been only a few months Lisa knew that he was thinking.

He looked up from his hands. "Ask him if it's possible to complete assigned tasks without engaging."

Lisa nodded. "VTF-0. Run simulation of completing assigned tasks without engaging. Over."

* * *

 **ORDERS RECEIVED AND UNDERSTOOD.**

 **PROCESSING SIMULATION.**

…

 **NEGATIVE. PREDACON WILL ENGAGE AND HENDER MISSION TASKS.**

 **RUNNING SIMULATION TWO.**

…

 **NEGATIVE. PREDACON WILL ENGAGE ALLIED FORCES RESULTING IN UNNESSARY CASUALTIES.**

* * *

Lisa shook her head. "Phoenix says it's no-go. He also ran a simulation for allied forces engaging the target and that's a no-go."

Gloval laughed silently. "That last one isn't a surprise. Considering how he feels about unnecessary losses." Gloval's voice turned serious. "He has permission to engage. He is then to go to the nearest ammo depot and stock up."

"Yes, sir." Lisa turned back to the com. "VT-0. Updates to mission objectives. Primary objective has been reduced to secondary. New primary objectives: engage and neutralize HVT-D4. Then head to depot epsilon-five for resupply. Confirm orders. Over."

* * *

 **ORDERS RECEIVED AND UNDERSTOOD.**

 **OBJECTIVE 'AID AUTOBOTS IN DESTROYING DARK MOUNT' HAS REDUCED STATUS TO SECONDARY OBJECTIVE.**

 **NEW PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:  
** **-ENGAGE HVT-D4 AND NUTRALIZE TARGET.  
** **-RENDEZVOUS WITH DEPOT EPSILON-FIVE FOR RESUPPLY.**

…

 **TARGET SIGHTED. ENGAGING.**

 **ACTIVATING PROTOCOL EDI**

* * *

 **Darkmount, Nevada  
** **August 5 2014 A.D. 1052 hours**

Bulkhead was grateful for the help the SMS guys were giving them, and the timing couldn't be better. A swarm of Insecticons came in ready to ravage the Autobots. If it weren't for the presence of the Destroids, as he heard one of the pilots call the robots, they would all be scrap. Despite how simple the machines were, they were extremely effective against the bug-like Decepticons. The bladed Destroids would hold back the ground forces while the gun-mounted Destroids would focus on the air forces.

Being the wreckers they were, the two allied cybertronians joined in on the melee. Bulkhead struck a 'con in the stomach with his mace. As it keeled over from the hit, he pointed the Heavy Ion Cannon at its head and blew it off. So far. So, good. He was still worried about the predacon he heard earlier. Like it was a jinx, the bestial 'con flew down from the top of dark mount. Inside Bulkhead was panicking, they couldn't hold up against the monster last time they fought. This time they had a better chance with the human forces but still.

 _^We're not gonna be just apart of their game^_

 _^We're not gonna be just the victims^_

 _^They're taking our dreams and they tear them apart^_

 _^Til every one's the same^_

 _^I've got no place to go, I've got nowhere to run^_

 _^They love to watch me fall, they think they know it all^_

Music started blaring over the coms and the Destroid pilots all let out a cheer.

"Keep jamming to those tunes, Phoenix." A squad captain, 'NOMAD' bulkhead believes, shouted.

That white with red stripes jet flew overhead at that point. Heading straight for the predacon. Bulkhead couldn't but think that the pilot was nuts. However if that jet could hold off the predacon till they finished with the Insecticons. They might have a chance. Speaking of 'cons, one made dash for bulk. He brought the mace down on its head killing it instantly.

* * *

 **Darkmount Airspace, Nevada  
** **August 5 2014 A.D. 1054 hours.**

Phoenix flew towards the predacon. Internally he was glad to fight it, that way his allies won't have to engage it and possible die. He entered optimal combat speed. He lined up the Predacon with his Energon pulse carbine or the slang term it's known by: the Gunpod. He was saving his missiles in hopes that he could take down the target before him and Darkmount before going to resupply. He had hopes of lessening casualties. Already three 'Spartan' Destroids were down.

He prayed that the pilots were ok. They were his extended family, because as far as he knows he doesn't have a normal one.

The predacon roared a challenge at him. To which Phoenix responds with a burst fire from the gun pod. The Energon lasers hit but the predacon ignored it and continued its charge. Switching to full auto, he fired at the 'con. Round after round hit it but it didn't seem to care. As the two aerial combatants neared each other, Phoenix stopped his assault while the predacon started his. Flames spewed from the dragon's mouth, ready to melt the armor of the jet.

Phoenix entered a corkscrew maneuver around the flames and HVT-D4. The predacon halted his breath attack to snap its jaws at the veritech fighter. The bite barely as missed as VF-0 straightened out behind the cybertronian. He entered a wide loop-de-loop, having calculated that he will come down on top the opponent for an optimal attack location.

The predacon pulled up at the same time. The two played chicken once again on a vertical plane. Phoenix launched a salvo of four SESMRAAM missiles as he shot short bursts form the Energon carbine. The short bursts allow him not to accidentally detonate his own missiles. Once again, the predacon ignored the bursts but he shot his fire blast and took out the missiles. Phoenix surprised at the display of intelligence, it wasn't as stupid as the field reports described.

However, it may be smart, it's only smart in animal terms like an ape, basic problem solving. Phoenix was smart in human terms. He can plan.

Using the explosion as a smoke screen, he hit the after burners and blew past the predacon. Surprised, the 'con stalled and dived after the speeding jet. Phoenix knew he was taking a big risk. He was at two thousand feet now, he would have to decrease velocity at one thousand feet, and then he would have to pull up at two hundred feet. It was gonna be close and that's what he was hoping for.

Reaching one thousand he shifted into 'guardian' mode. The engines snapped forward into legs pointed at the ground. A pair of arms extended out of the bottom and to the side the Gunpod held in the right arm. Over all it looks like the nose and wings of a fighter plane stuck on "chicken walker" legs with two arms, and a gun. The legs shot exhaust downward, slowing down the fighter. Phoenix knew that it wouldn't be enough.

This was going to be a rough landing.

He hit two hundred feet. Pulling up sharply, the veritech scraped against the ground. In order to stop his high speeds, he switched to the battleloid configuration. The planed folded in half to form a body and a head popped up. The legs and arm situated themselves to the proper places. He braced his feet against the ground and leaned against inertia and almost toppled over. To same himself the crash he slammed his free hand into the ground balancing himself and creating more friction to stop.

To anyone else, who's observing it looked fricking awesome, but in reality he saved himself from a dangerous move. His head looked up to see the predacon's progress. The battleloid's head was humanoid, he had no mouth, just a smooth rounded faceplate. Instead of eyes there was a simple green visor. Where his ears should be if he was human were twin, double barrel, laser turrets. His head slowly moved as he tracked the predacon.

The con didn't have as much luck as phoenix did. The predacon flapped its wings frantically trying to stop, but all it managed was some forward motion. It crashed into the ground at high speed. The predacon rolled and tumbled, and surprisingly got up all fours. Still hadn't stopped yet, and when it looked like he would, his legs folded beneath him. He rolled several more times before coming to a stop. He covered at least hundred feet in that crash landing. Dust acted as a smoke screen between Phoenix and the predacon.

Phoenix stood up Gunpod at the ready if the dragon pulled anything off. As expected, the dragon flew at him like a bullet out of a gun. Phoenix squeezed of a few rounds before it collided with him. They flew back Phoenix landing on his back with the Predacon pinning the veritech's arms. The animalistic Decepticon roared in triumph and charged its fireball. If Phoenix could smirk, he would.

He placed his foot against the 'cons stomach and maxed out the engines. The Predacon roared in agony as its armor turned red hot from the exhaust. At the same time, Phoenix shoots off like a rocket dragging the Predacon with him. Over time, he gets an arm free, he deploys a missile rack, grabbing one off before retracting the rack. He stabs the missile into heated area of the Predacon. The projectile weapon sliding through the liquid like area.

Placing both feet against the Predacon, Phoenix kicked him off. The 'con went flying, while the battleloid cut the engines and back flipped to his feet, stopping. He switched the carbine to single shot and took aim. The Predacon had taken flight once more and was diving at Phoenix. The veritech fighter aimed his Gunpod for the missile and pulled the trigger.

Everything seemed to slow down. The gun sounded out as the muzzle flashed green. The green AHEAD round flew across the field. Phoenix cold see the horror in the predacon's eyes as the bullet flew past its chin. The round made contact with the missile and nothing happened at first. Phoenix almost panicked, then the missile exploded and the Predacon disappeared in green smoke.

Phoenix turned and headed towards Darkmount that was so far away now. He knew that the Predacon wasn't joining the fight again. If it had survived the missile he knew that the damage it had received would put it out of the fight. Shifting into his fighter form he took off for Darkmount. He updated the situation to the 'Phoenix's Nest'.

* * *

 **MISSION UPDATE.**

 **FIRST PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:** **ENGAGE HVT-D4 AND NUTRALIZE TARGET.  
** **STATUS: COMPLETED.**

 **AMMO COUNT:  
** **-100 X AHEAD ROUNDS IN PRIMARY CLIP FOR CARBINE. ADDITIONAL CLIPS AVAILABLE.  
** **-8 X SEMRAAM MISSILES  
** **-19 X SESRAAM MISSILES  
** **-2 X FAST PACK MODULES**

 **RESUESTING TO RETURN TO ORIGINAL PRIMARY OBJECTIVE**

…

* * *

 **Bridge of the Samuels  
** **August 5 2014 A.D. 1114 hours.**

Lisa sighed. "He's all over the place today."

"What is it, Lisa?" Claudia asked leaning over to peak at her monitor.

"Oh, nothing. Phoenix's is requesting _another_ objective change."

Gloval walked up behind him. "I can understand why. Most of his simulations were solo flights. He wasn't worrying about casualties, then. We all know how he feels about casualties. We should respect that. What's the request?"  
Lisa nodded. "Well, it seems that he wants to resume the assault on Darkmount."

"Can he do it?"

"Considering he took down the Predacon with only single clip of carbine ammo and a single salvo of SEMRAAM missiles. With minor damage."

"Wow, that's really good." A young voice piped up.

It belonged to one of the youngest members of the bridge crew, Sammie. She looked too young to be in the military. She had red hair and innocent blue eyes.

"You're telling me." Replied Lisa.

Gloval hummed. "Give him the go ahead, but have Lieutenant Fokker and Lieutenant Hunter run support."

"Yes, sir." She clicked the com. "VF-0. Objective updates. Rescind remaining primary objective. Advance secondary objective to primary, and standby for assistance from skull leader and vermillion leader. Confirm orders. Over."

She turned off the com and sighed. Hopefully for the last time.

* * *

 **ORDERS RECIVED AND UNDERSTOOD.**

 **PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: RENDEZVOUS WITH DEPOT EPSILON-FIVE FOR RESUPPLY.**

 **STATUS: RESCENDED.**

 **OBJECTIVE 'AID AUTOBOTS IN DESTROYING DARK MOUNT' HAS ASCENDED TO PRIMARY OBJECTIVE.**

 **ENTERING STANDBY MODE**

…

 **ACIVATING PROTOCOL EDI**

* * *

 **Darkmount Airspace, Nevada  
** **August 5 2014 A.D. 1115 hours**

The white jet circled the edges of the border of Darkmount while he waited. Phoenix hated waiting, every second someone dies.

'I mustn't let anyone die or she'll be sad.'

 _We will win_

 _We must win_

* * *

 **For those who have issues imagining Phoenix's head it's like that of Roy Fokker's veritech.**

 **I happened to be listening to** _ **bullet proof skin**_ **by Institute when I wrote this chapter and I was like 'why not?' There will be a certain reason he does this to be revealed in later chapters**

 **I also do apologize for the lack of Autobot involvement.**

 **Songs:**

 _ **Me against the world-**_ **Simple Plan**

 _ **We will win-**_ **Ulpio Minucci & Marcia Woods**


	4. A Flicker of Hope

**In the mountains outside Darkmount**  
 **August 5 2014 1115 hours**

Two men sat in the dirt, watching as smoke plumes rose from the Predacon's final moments. The men had two very different ages. One was well into his twenties, he had blond wild hair and had mischief filled blue eyes. He wore a black and grey flight suit and beside him sat an identically colored helmet. He's Lieutenant Roy Fokker of Skull squadron, double ace of the SMS, and the man beside him is his adopted brother Lieutenant Rick Hunter of the Vermillion Squadron. Rick was barely leaving his teens and he had black hair with light blue eyes. He wore a red and white flight suit with his helmet sitting next to his brother's. The two of them were here with their F-35E's equipped with experimental SHADOW stealth systems that can hide from Cybertronian sensors.

"There he goes again, showing off. Do you think he'll leave us any?" Rick asked putting down his binoculars.

Roy looked through his set of binoculars. "I highly doubt it. He hates people getting hurt so he tries to shoulder the entire battle. Sound like anyone we know." Roy peeked out from under his binoculars and looked pointedly at Rick.

The younger pilot puffed his cheeks out. "Yeah, Yeah."

The coms inside their helmets crackled and the brothers put on their respective helmets.

^Skull leader and Vermillion leader, this is Phoenix nest. Come in. Over.^ Lisa called.

^We're here.^ Roy answered for rick.

^You are to rendezvous with VF-0 and proceed with the destruction of Darkmount. Over.^

^Alright, tell him we're on our way.^

^Understood. Also do hurry up, he's all over the place today.^

^Roger.^ the siblings replied simultaneously.

They got up and headed for their energon powered and weaponized jets. Roy's fighter was decorated in a black and yellow design with a skull and crossbones on the rudder. Ricks design was similar to that of Phoenix's white with red stripes on the main body and wings. They entered the cockpits of their respective fighter. Priming their engines, they turned on the SHADOW devices and entered VTOL mode to rise above the mountains. Once they reached optimal flight altitude they returned to normal flight mode and took off in Phoenix's direction.

Roy contacted Rick. ^Well, little brother. Looks we'll get to find out if he left some for us.^

Rick answered back. ^Guess so.^

Uploading the rendezvous point to him, now. Roy notified.

* * *

 **RECEIVING DATA FROM SMS PILOT LIEUTENANT ROY FOKKER**

 **…**

 **RECEIVED**

 **LOCATION GAMMA-8 SET AS RENDEZVOUS POINT**

 **ALTERING COURSE…**

* * *

 **Darkmount, Nevada**  
 **August 5 2014 1122 hours**

Megatron dragged Ultra Magnus by his foot to the throne room. The current autobot leader groaned as his head scraped against the floor. Megatron wanted to tear the 'bot's spark out, but the Decepticon leader had yet to see Optimus. Megatron planned to interrogate him and if necessary torture him until he knew where Optimus is. The only wrenches that was currently in his plan were the femme and the scout still uncaptured, and the human forces.

The vehicons had been giving him constant coverage of the battles and both were not in his favor. The insecticons were being torn apart by the ground forces and all the human lost is fifteen units. Then predacon was defeated by the White jet that can transform. The Fusion Cannons on his beloved base could not be fired at this range, a fault the needs to be solved. A good way to end this fight is to throw both the autobot leaders at their feet and watch them despair. Megatron would then unleash the full might of the Decepticons. Megatron entered the throne room.

Starscream bowed. "Welcome back, my lord."

The Decepticon pulled Ultra Magnus center and tossed him forward. "Now where is Optimus Prime?"

The blue cybertronian stayed silent.

Megatron growled. "I won't ask again. Where is Optimus?"

Ultra Magnus pushed himself up. "Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you."

Megatron extended his internal blade, time for mind games. "Take him to Shockwave and torture what we need from him, then take his friends and throw them in the pit."

Starscream instead walked forward. "What is that?"

Megatron looked. In the distance the was a silhouette in the sun. "The Predacon?"

Starscream backed away. "Not beasty, enough."

As the silhouette grew closer, horror grew on Megatron and Starscream only confirmed it.

"I recognize that paint scheme."

Now everyone could see it or him fully. It was Optimus Prime. He body had gained mass, and on his back was a flight system. No wonder Prime had been missing from this fight, he had been getting upgrades. Optimus flew in and landed with ease. Without stopping his forward motion, Optimus performed a spin maneuver striking Megatron with a fist and an elbow then spun once more punching the Decepticon solid in the chest. Megatron flew back a crumbled his own throne.

The vehicons in the room charged optimus. Optimus responded by pulling a gatling gun out and fired a spray that slayed every 'con in the room. Starscream had watched all of this, and slowly backed up hoping to stealthily escape. Except he backed right into Ultra magnus. The second-in-command whimpered as the 'bot brought his arm back and delivered a right uppercut. Starscream went flying into the stairs, unconscious.

Optimus turned to face the 'bot who had replaced him for a short time. "Commander?"

Ultra Magnus gave him the once-over. "Sir, you're looking...robust. It is paramount that we disable the fusion cannons below."

Prime nodded. "Understood."

The revived leader turned and jumped off the building, flying towards the cannon.

Ultra Magnus raised everyone on the coms. "All units. Optimus Prime has returned."

He could hear everyone cheer. Today would be theirs."

* * *

 **NEW ENERGON SIGNATURE**

 **SCANNING…**

 **...**

 **ERROR**

 **NO MATCH IN DATABASE**

 **SWITCHING TO VISUAL**

 **SCANNING…**

 **…**

 **ERROR NO MATCH**

 **CONTACTING LIEUTENANT ROY FOKKER…**

* * *

 **Darkmount Airspace**  
 **August 5 2014 1125 hours**

'Optimus sure knows how to make an entrance.' Roy commented mentally.

The two pilots had just met up with the VF-0 and had altered their course to Darkmount. Thanks to to the zoom ability on their battle-cams all three SMS pilots saw Optimus's grand entrance. A beeping from his console brought his attention to a message from Phoenix.

Phoenix: I can't match the new signature to database. Need clarification.

Roy sighed and opened a com-channel. ^Both you and I know who that is.^

Phoenix: Doesn't match any entries in the database.

The human pilot pinched the bridge of his nose. ^Look, Phoenix. Don't depend so much on the database. Remember, you're not just a machine. You're better than that.^

Phoenix:...

Phoenix: You're right. Thanks, Roy.

He just shrugged. ^No problem. Now, what's the plan?^

Phoenix: The objective hasn't changed just some factors. We'll give Optimus cover while he tears the 'cons a new one.

^Now that's the spirit. Rick did ya hear that?^ Fokker commented

Rick enthusiastically replied. ^You bet. Let's show these guys whose planet this is.^

All three jets hit the afterburners and charged Darkmount.

* * *

 **Darkmount Airspace**  
 **August 5 2014 1127 hours**

Optimus fired a spray of energon at Megatron who chased him around Darkmount. The Decepticon leader dodged the bolts and fired three sets of blaster bolts that Optimus spiraled to avoid. The roar of jets brought the Autobot's attention forward as Starscream followed by a large group of vehicons circled around the tower the opposite way. With Optimus in the middle, both Megatron and Starscream's group fired at him, forcing him into fancy maneuvers. The Autobot leader turned away from darkmount to avoid the pincer movement.

The Decepticons congealed into a single group and pursued while laying down heavy suppressive fire. The newly airborne cybertronian attempted to return to Darkmount but it seems Megatron's priority is not killing Prime but keeping him far from the Decepticon base. Near Darkmount optimus could see that Shockwave was charging towards Bulkhead and Wheeljack. The battle had taken a turn for the worst and Fowler's force would be here soon.

Hope was rekindled as three human jets hurtled over Optimus's head and scattered the opposers. Optimus watched as three human jets downed vehicon after vehicon, and noticed that Megatron had taken a particular liking to one. Optimus turned around and joined the fight. A black and yellow fighter joined optimus and the pilot saluted the prime, which he returned.

^So, you're the famous Optimus prime.^ His voice had a hint of humor and respect.

Optimus nodded. ^Indeed, I am. However I must ask who are you and why are you here? No human forces should be in the area as far as I was notified.^

^Lieutenant Roy Fokker of the SMS. We're here thanks to him, Phoenix.^ Roy gestured to the outlier in the human forces.

Phoenix- to Optimus' surprise- had the ability to transform between three forms. A fighter jet resembling the humans' F-14, a humanoid form and a form where it's a combination. The pilot was an ace by the way he used all three forms to his advantage, cutting swaths in the Decepticon seekers. Despite how good these pilots and machines below are, there's only one way this fight's going to won.

Optimus diverted his attention back to Roy. ^Lieutenant Roy. The Fusion Cannons must be destroyed or all of this will be for naught.^

Roy nodded. ^Alright guys, huddle up.^

Phoenix and the other white/red fighter broke away from the fight and rejoined Roy.

^Here's how things are:^ The Lieutenant commanded. ^Megatron, starscream, and a group of seekers stand between Prime and those Fusion Cannons. Phoenix, seems that Megatron has some beef with you, distract him. I'll taunt Starscream and his lackeys. Rick, Shockwave's got the upper hand up on Primal with those Insecticons, get rid of the bugs and that should do the trick.^

^Yes, sir!^ Rick replied as he dove while launching a volley of missiles.

Phoenix pulled ahead and scattered the 'cons once again.

^Optimus, follow me and we'll punch through.^ Roy suggested.

^Understood.^ Optimus nodded.

Optimus and Roy charged.

^Gentleman. Let's plow the road.^ Shouted Roy as the two of them opened up their machine guns.

A wall of energon bolts slammed into enemy lines and any seeker unfortunate enough to be caught in it was torn to shreds. For good measure and insurance, Roy fired several volleys of missiles making their path even more clear. Both human and Autobot made it through unharmed, halting their relentless assault. Roy peeled off to engage starscream as planned. Optimus reached Darkmount and circled it until he pulled up in front of the barrel to the superweapon.

"Today, their reign of tyranny ends." Optimus declared as he fired his gatling gun down the shaft and into the power source.

A satisfying explosion was heard and Optimus pulled away when flames spewed out.

* * *

 **Derelict Decepticon Warship Harbinger, Earth**  
 **August 5 2014 1145 hours**

Ratchet watched with secret joy as Raf and Miko cheered at the presence of their beloved leader. Today was a good day, Darkmount was well on its way to destruction, and Megatron was soon to be defeated. The Predacon was out of the battle as far as he was concerned, hopefully for good. If it wasn't for the human forces everyone might've been captured by now. Whoever these SMS guys are, the Autobots owe them, their lives. The only way today could get any better was if jack was here.

Arcee voice came in on the coms. ^We're still inside! We're pinned down by 'cons and they don't intend on letting us out. We need a Groundbridge.^

Without missing a beat, Rachet flipped the switch to open one but it didn't. Raf and Miko watched in horror as warning symbols flashed all over the screen, Stating that the Decepticons Groundbridge jammer was still up, unfortunately.

Ratchet shook his head. ^I can't. Their jammer is still online, somehow. Unless you can shut it down, you're stranded.^

As if fate wanted this day to turn into a nightmare another com-channel came to life. ^This is William Fowler. Beginning our bomb run.^

Ratchet scrambled over the controls as he found every frequency allied, civilian or military and shouted over the coms. ^Don't destroy Darkmount! Arcee and Bumblebee are still inside! They can't 'bridge out. Someone, anyone get them OUT!^ To make sure the point gets across Ratchet broadcasts Arcee's message

"Do you think Optimus will be able to make it?" Raf asked worried.

Ratchet comforted the boy. "Of course, he can. He's Optimus."

Jack's death caused some changes in the team and because of that, in his name, the medic will not let Arcee die.

* * *

 **ANALYZING INCOMING AUDIO**

 **…**

 **ANALYZED**

 **RESULTS/FRIENDLY: 1 X CYBERTRONIAN ALLY(AUTOBOT)**

 **DESIGNATION: ARCEE**

 **…**

 **AR...ARCEE**

* * *

 _He looked at the beautiful cybertronian that sat beside him on the ledge. They just saved the world - again - and wanted to enjoy the sunset._

 _Arcee looked down at him and smiled. "Partners?"_

 _He nodded. "Partners."_

* * *

 **ARCEE**

 **ARCEE**

 **ARCEE ARCEE**

 **ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE**

 **ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE ARCEE** **ARCEE** **ARCEE** **ARCEE** **ARCEE** **ARCEE** **ARCEE** **ARCEE** **ARCEE**

 **PHOENIX NEST, LET ME GO SAVE ARCEE, PLEASE.**

* * *

 **Bridge of the Samuels  
August 5 2014 1147 hours**

Lisa gasped. "Oh, no."

Gloval walked over. "What is it?"

"We have a Code Mnemosyne."

Varying forms of surprise came from the bridge crew, but the captain stayed silent.

"Is Jack awake?" He calmly asked.

Lisa shook her head. "No, it was just a memory flash, but he wants to go save Arcee."

Gloval sighed. "No."

"Sir!" Claudia shouted.

He held up a hand. "Phoenix is holding off Megatron. Our forces may be able to fight off Shockwave but if Megatron were to turn his attention on them. He would turn them into mincemeat."

The coms came to life and Roy's voice came out. ^Why hasn't Phoenix received the go ahead?^

Lisa replied. ^How do you know about that?^

Roy got it. ^Listen, this is important to the kid. Ever since told him about his memory loss, he's been pushing to get them back. Now, he's found the key. Not letting him go would be the worst thing you can do.^

The unanimous agreement of Primal sounded out from the com station.

Gloval knew what it meant to Phoenix but that's not the issue. "What do you suggest we do about Megatron?"

Lisa relayed the message.

^Honestly, sir. Megatron could use the break. Between Phoenix and Optimus, he looks like he wants to go home.^

The seasoned seaman considered this information as he was slowly convinced.

^Sir.^ Phoenix commed in. ^Please, let me go.^

Sammie commented from the back. "Wow. He spoke."

Kim, a black haired youth added on. "He hasn't done that in awhile."

Gloval hummed. 'They may be right. Phoenix has been made aware of his memory loss. He looked to us, his 'family', for help. It's hard to believe sometimes but he's still just a boy.'

He nodded. "You have my permission."

Lisa nodded. ^VF-0 objective update. New Primary Objective: Rescue Autobot Allies: Arcee and Bumblebee.^

^Thank you, sir.^ The once human replied.

Roy popped in.^ Also while you're saving your girlfriend, play something good. I'm in the mood for some music.^

Phoenix sputtered. ^Ah...what?! She's not my girlfriend!^

^Whatever helps you sleep at night.^

* * *

 **ORDERS RECEIVED AND UNDERSTOOD**

 **NEW OBJECTIVE:**

 **-RESCUE CYBERTRONIAN ALLIES ARCEE AND BUMBLEBEE**

 **…**

 **TRIANGULATING SIGNAL LOCATION**

 **…**

 **FOUND**

 **ALTERING COURSE**

 **ACTIVATING PROTOCOL EDI**

 **LOCKING ON TARGET**

 **...**

 **FIRING ORDNANCE**

 **...**

 **HANG ON ARCEE. I'M COMING.**

* * *

 **Inside Darkmount**  
 **August 5 2014**

If there was one Arcee hated right now more than anything it was getting shot at. 'Bee and her had taken cover inside a room by the door frame. 'Cons were coming at them from both sides. Arcee's already a hit to the stomach and shoulder leaving her on the floor, blind firing around the corner. 'Bee's only received a few scrapes and had the shield, so he was popping around the corner taking pot shots. Most-likely killing more Vehicons then she was.

Bee buzzed and whirred.(They're getting closer.)

Arcee hit head against the wall and commed ratchet. ^We're getting shoved in a corner. Some backup could be nice.^

^Already on it's way.^ Ratchet notified her.

^Good, when does it get here?^

^Oh, you'll hear it.^

A 'con stepped in front of the doorway and aimed it's blaster at Arcee. Arcee and 'Bee watched in a mixture of horror and surprise as the weapon charged. Music started playing on the coms.

 _^Baby, now that you feel like number one^_

 _^Shining bright for everyone^_

The 'con folded over as it was kicked in the stomach by a white and red mech that Arcee's never see before. It pointed its large pod-like gun at enemy's head and promptly blew it off.

 _^Living out your fantasy^_

 _^The brightest star that's ever been^_

The mech grabbed the deactivated Cybertronian and used it as a shield while he shot the other 'con straight through the chest. While that one fell, the mech backed up into the room and casually tossed the body on the floor. The music stopped as something popped of the gun and it replaced it. Arcee saw that the mech had similarities to that of a jet. It looked around before settling on arcee and rushing over to her side.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

Arcee looked like a deer caught in headlights. It's voice is just like, no, exactly like Jack's. "Jack?"

"No. I'm Phoenix."

Bumblebee buzzed. (It's nothing. You sound like an old friend.)

Arcee sent him a glare.

Phoenix nodded as he stood up "Ok. Listen the group on the left side are weaker. If we blow through through we should get out."

"What about the other side?" Arcee asked.

From his side, a rack slid out, he pulled a missile from it then retracted the rack. A light on the missile started blinking and the tossed it down the right corridor. An explosion sounded and part of a vehicon head bounced in the room. He then transformed into a plane with arm and legs. Might as well add on to the mystery.

He dropped the gun on the floor. "Help me with her."

'Bee picked up Arcee and placed her in the half-jet's arms. The wings folded directly behind Phoenix.

"Bumblebee take the gun-pod and get on my back. Be careful, you only have thirty-two hundred rounds and they go by faster than you think."

'Bee did as he was told and the lurched slightly under the increase of weight. It walked forward to the edge of the door.

"Ready?" He confirmed.

Arcee nodded that she was ready as did 'Bee. Phoenix fired his engines and they turned sharply, down the now flaming corridor. Blaster bolts went over their heads, Arcee saw the unknown mech pop his head out from under the fuselage. The turrets rotated forward while the head turned around to fire at the 'cons behind them. He turned another sharp corner, bracing a foot against the wall in order to not crash. He bounced off and continued on.

Some vehicons had gathered in their path that bumblebee took down with a combination of gun-pod and blaster fire. Phoenix blew through the smoke and the wreckage. He took another turn and there was the exit a hole that was blown in the wall with a group of insecticons standing in their path. Bumblebee unleashed another hail of blaster fire, that took forever to kill them. One last insecticon remained when Bumblebee ran out of ammo on the gun-pod that did most of the damage. Arcee raised her built-in blaster and shot the 'con in the head, deactivating it.

"Hang on!" Phoenix shouted.

The legs came up and the wings folded out. Bumblebee tightened his grip while Phoenix held Arcee closer. The femme noticed that hole was too small and planned to to voice this. However, any form of warning was halted when he fired a pair of missiles at the hole. It was now wide enough to fit then as they went through, but his wing tips scraped against the edges. Immediately they lost altitude and they descended rapidly.

The jet struggled to keep the nose up as he distanced himself from the tower. After some distance, he let himself fall to the ground. Bumblebee hopped off and Phoenix transformed quickly into robot mode saving Arcee from scraping on the ground. Everyone looked up to see a v-formation of fighters bomb Darkmount. The tower toppled over and one could hear megatron's cry of anguish. Phoenix set arcee down on her feet but held her up.

'Bee switched the gun-pod for arcee. (Thanks.)

Phoenix and locked it under his forearm. "No, problem."

Arcee stared at him with determination. "You are Jack, I'm sure of it."

Phoenix looked at her. "I'm sorry. I'm not him. I hate to hurt you like this."

The whirring sound of a Groundbridge distracted arcee and bumblebee, and when they turned around Phoenix was already airborne. Arcee didn't plan on giving up, she was convinced it was jack. Even if he was different, she could tell and she was not gonna lose him again. 'Bee guided her and she reluctantly followed. The female 'bot looked behind to see Phoenix join with two other jets.

'I will see you again, Jack.' She mentally swore as she followed the scout through the Groundbridge.

* * *

Smokescreen drove up just in time to watch Darkmount fall.

He transformed and stared in disblief. "Aw i missed the action."

* * *

 **songs:**

 **number one(ichigo's theme) - bleach**


	5. the nest

**So I forgot to mention this awhile back but most of you probably know, especially after my five day hiatus, but in my profile I've got what stories I'm doing, when they're updating, notifications about my stories, and future stories that you can vote for to be published first. I will move this note to the first chapter later.**

 **I'll also be increasing the chapter lengths to give you guys more to read so there might be changes to when the updates happen. Whether it's sooner or later is unknown.**

* * *

 **CURRENT OBJCTIVES**

 **-RETURN TO PHOENIX NEST FOR RESUPPLY**

 **-WAIT FOR FURTHER ORDERS**

* * *

^Hey Phoenix. About Arcee, is she hot?^ Roy called out on the radio.

* * *

 **OBEJECTIVES UNDER CONSIDERATION**

 **-NUETRALIZATION OF THE ANNOYANCE KNOWN AS LIEUTENANT ROY FOKKER**

* * *

 **Over the pacific, nearing NUNS Samuels  
August 5, 2014 1313 hours**

^Come on, Roy. Quit giving him a hard time.^ Rick defended.

^Hey, come on. I'm just curious.^ Skull squadron leader countered.

^Alright now, knock off the chatter.^ Lisa interrupted. ^Skull leader and Vermilion leader, you are to land on runway one. Phoenix you are to land on runway two and immediately proceed to the cage for maintenance.^

^Roger.^ All SMS fighters replied even Phoenix.

It was an odd sensation for Phoenix, using his voice. He's only used it when he first met Gloval, the bridge crew, and the adopted brothers in the air and sometimes when he works construction. As odd as a sensation speaking was, it was a good feeling. What he didn't feel good about was going into 'the cage'. It was a large harness like system that held him in his battleloid mode and would let the scientists work on him without him accidentally flexing and crushing someone. It was similar to a chair. Speaking of which, the Samuels was getting closer.

The NUNS Samuels is a new carrier created for the use of mecha and large sized planes, named a super-carrier. It's about two or three times the size of your average carrier. The front of the ship looked like a hand or a claw. It comes with two runways that are designed for two fighter jets such as f-35E's or cargo aircraft like C-17's. Phoenix let Roy and rick land first, they pulled off into the side and into the elevator, and they dropped to the lower deck. Phoenix followed in onto runway two, he transformed into guardian mode and pulled off onto the elevator. As the elevator lowered he shifted to the battleloid mode.

When the lift stopped, Phoenix had to duck to get inside. The storage deck of the Samuels was high enough to accommodate the veritech. However, a foot shorter and his head would be scraping the ceiling. There were catwalks at the battleloid's chest level and head level on the walls. As Phoenix walked towards the change in the back, he saw Rick and Roy climbing the steps. He set his Gunpod in the harness that was by the 'cage and sat down in it. Immediately scientists started bustling around him, activating the clamps that held his arms and legs in place.

A man in lab coat with brown hair and solid black hair walked in front of Phoenix on the upper level cat-walk. "Hello, Phoenix."

"Hello, Dr. Lang." the mech replied. Dr. Lang was among the first to hear Phoenix's voice.

"So. Looks like we had another memory flash." Dr. Lang flipped through some papers on a clipboard.

"Yes, sir."

"What did you remember?"

"Not much, sir. Just Arcee."

Lang looked up from the clipboard. "Remember, I'm your doctor, and your therapist. Even though I'm not qualified for it nor any good. That's not the point. The point is you can trust me"

Phoenix may not remember if he had a family, he feels like he doesn't need to. His team was his family. Dr. Emil Lang was like that uncle you could trust no matter what. Lisa was the over-watching big sister. Roy and Rick were his brothers, while Gloval was like a father to him.

Phoenix sighed. "I remembered that she's the one I've been wanting to protect, that I felt bad for leaving her. Also the girl I've been… dreaming about."

"I knew you had a girl on the mind, but dreaming about her. You must really like her." Roy called out.

If Phoenix wasn't strapped to the cage, he would've fallen out of it. Roy and Rick were on the same cat-walk as Lang but more off to the side. They were leaning against the rail laughing. Emil had a smile on his face as he wrote down something on his clip board.

"Well, now that we've had our entertainment for the evening. Phoenix we're gonna have to unplug you and check you out. You may not remember much but today's events may have opened a gate that could allow us to force the rest of your memories out." Dr. Land said as he placed the clip board on a nearby tray

"Understood, I'll go to sleep."

* * *

 **PREPPING SLEEP MODE…**

 **DEACTIVATING OPTICAL SENSORS**

…

 **DEACTIVATED**

 **DEACTIVATING AUDIO SENSORS**

…

 **DEACTIVATED**

 **DEACTIVATING LIMBIC SYSTEM**

…

 **DEACTIVATED**

 **SHUTTING DOWN ALL PROGRAMS**

…

 **ENTERING SLEEP MODE**

* * *

Once Dr. Lang saw the light behind Phoenix's visor fade, he sent the retrieval team to collect the 'Cranium'. Phoenix's head leaned forward, and a chair came up. Few seconds later another chair followed, this one had a device on the front of it. The retrieval team worked at it until the pulled out a head sized tear-drop object had blinking lights all over it. The 'Cranium' is the device that holds Phoenix's consciousness. The retrieval team brought the device to a table covered in computers on the other side of the massive head. Dr. Lang walked over followed closely by the brothers.

Lang hooked up the mixture of Cybertronian and Human technology to the computers. The screens flashed to life, data streaming across it. Eventually it took the shape of a human brain. He began typing on the keyboard instructions to look for the memories of Jack.

"I'm still a little confused about something." Rick said.

"Oh? Go ahead, shoot." Lang replied.

Rick put his two pointer fingers together and apart before he held his hands out in confusion. "Are Phoenix and Jack like two separate personalities or what?"

Emil shook his head. "Phoenix and Jack are the same personality, the memories are just missing."

"I've read the file on Jack and he's not like Phoenix." Roy added.

Lang sighed. "You have to realize that Jack was raised just like any other teenage boy, Phoenix is what jack would be if he had joined the military."

"Ah, okay, but what had caused his memory loss?" Rick continued his questioning.

Lang held up a finger. "Memory loss is a misnomer in this case. It's more like a memory repression. Right now there is a mental wall blocking his memories. We're hoping to break through."

"Speaking of which, what's his progress?" Captain Gloval appeared beside Dr. Lang.

True to their military training, both Rick and Roy entered a salute.

"At ease." Ordered the captain.

Lang greeted, "Hello, Captain."

"Hello." Gloval nodded.

"As far as progress, we made some steps today. The small hole that was created when our hero here saved Minmei, has increased in size."

"It seems your theory was right." Commented the naval veteran.

"Yes, the more he's exposed to people, things, or events of his past. The more that mental barrier is broken. I suggest that we have him become more involved with the Autobots. That way the barrier can be torn down completely." Lang suggested.

"Isn't there a danger to doing that?" Gloval asked.

The doctor rubbed his chin in thought. "Everything has a risk, but yes. There is a chance that the memories could come in too fast and some might be destroyed, or he could just go insane."

"What?!" Exclaimed the captain. "You expect me to send him to the Autobots with that information."

Lang held his hands in supplication. "To be honest, odds of him going insane are pretty slim. Permanent loss of memory is more likely. However, expect more episodes like today."

"Oh?"

"Well, it depends on the strength of the memory but there may be the chance when he remembers it may become his only thought. Like today when he remembered Arcee, he probably would've gone to save her even if you said no."

"I know." Gloval explained. "That's why I let him go."

Lang smirked. "What I thought."

Gloval nodded. "When you put him back in, tell him we're going home. We're picking up the manned veritech fighters for Skull squadron and Lieutenant Rick will finally have reason to be called Vermilion leader."

Rick looked flabbergasted and Roy smiled, but both kept their mouths shut respectfully.

Lang had to stifle a laugh. "I'll tell him."

Gloval turned around and left. The brothers took off to the quarters arguing about Rick getting subordinates. Lang shook his head and continued his work. Ever since they had uploaded Jack's mind into the VF-0, the creation of manned veritechs took off. They planned on syncing the mind with the machine so the pilot could better man the guardian, and battleloid forms. Unfortunately, they had issues creating the device. Phoenix had allowed them to backtrack from a full-dive like phoenix was to a half-dive. It was like the difference between virtual reality and augmented reality.

They still had to do a test run to see if the machines work outside the simulators.

* * *

 **New Autobot HQ, Nevada  
August 5** **th** **, 2014 1941 hours**

"Are you sure, absolutely sure that he sounded like Jack?" Ratchet asked.

Arcee slammed her fist against the wall. "He didn't sound like him, he _is_ jack. I'm sure of it!"

Optimus held up a reassuring hand. "Calm down Arcee."

After the Battle of Darkmount, the Autobots received a new headquarters in one of the human air force bases. Agent Fowler had given thanks to the Autobots on behalf of a lot of important people. While it was nothing like their original base but it still felt like home. It would feel closer to home if Jack was here and that's what Arcee was trying to do. For the past few hours, she's been reciting her encounter and trying to convince them that Phoenix was Jack. So far, it hasn't been working to her advantage.

"I can't calm down, I have to go get Jack!" The femme shouted.

Bulkhead thudded over. "I don't mean to be like this but… Jack's dead."

Arcee incinerated the larger 'bot with her stare. "Then why did he use Jack's voice."

Fowler held his hands in uncertainty. "Maybe it just… ended up like his."

Arcee countered. "No way had it just _ended_ up like his, out of the six _billion_ people on this planet."

"Lucky chance?" Smokescreen added in, to which arcee glared in response.

"Arcee," Optimus butted in. "Could you come speak with me in private?"

Arcee nodded and followed Optimus as he led her outside and into one of the other warehouses.

"What is it you wanted to talk about, sir?" Arcee crossed her arms.

"One thing I'd like you to know before I ask. You can answer as honest as you want to. Whatever you say will stay between us." Optimus said with a soft voice.

"Of course." Arcee rubbed her arms.

"Now, how do you know that Phoenix is Jack?"

"I…" She hesitated. "I don't know how. I just… you know that feeling when you know something with every fiber of your being?"

"I do."

"It's like that. I have no idea how but I'm sure that Phoenix is Jack."

Optimus looked at her for a few seconds, pondering. Arcee saw empathy in his eyes.

"I'll talk to Agent Fowler. There may be something he can find out or get into direct contact with these… SMS." He declared.

Arcee's eyes widened. "Thank You. Why…Why are you doing this?"

"I've been in your situation before and know how you feel." He said. "We should be getting back."

Arcee nodded. "Of course."

As superior and subordinate returned to the others, Arcee was filled with new hope. She planned on getting Jack back, even if it meant marching through both the Decepticon armada and the SMS.

* * *

 **Macross Island, located off the coast of Hawaii  
August 9, 2014 0921**

The NUNS Samuels had pulled in at the Macross port sometime last night. Macross Island was a small piece of land that was only able to hold a single city, which it did. The city of Macross and in the middle of it sat a city-sized spaceship. The ship was covered in scaffolding, and was still under construction. Several years ago an alien spaceship crash landed on Macross Island. During that time a war was going on, but was stopped when the ship crashed. The ship was dubbed the SDF-1. Then for six years the ship was rebuilt and modified with a combination of human, cybertronian and the technology they found on the ship. The technology was named Robotech and as a fact was the same technology used to make Phoenix.

Said veritech was currently helping with the construction, right now. He helped with the heavy lifting, carrying steel plates, lining them up and holding them still as they were fixed into place. There wasn't a lot for the once-human to do and besides the workers were interesting company. Phoenix stepped back from holding a steel plate in place. He turned to grab another but at the fence separating the city and the construction was a teenage girl in a yellow dress and blue jacket with a wide sun hat. She had dark blue hair with _ eyes and was of Japanese descent. Beside her was Rick and both of them were waving.

"Hey guys, I'll be right back." Phoenix notified the others.

The head construction worker nodded. "Don't take too long."

Phoenix walked over to where to the fence and crouched by the humans. "How ya doing?"

The girl – Minmei – smiled. "I'm doing good. How about you?"

"Oh, just working." The mech jerked a thumb towards the construction.

Ricked piped up. "I'm surprised that you're here. When you're off duty it's all but impossible to wake you up."

If Phoenix could glare he would. "I had signed up for work a while back and didn't want to miss it. Anyways, what are you two doing here?"

Minmei shifted her weight. "Oh, I was just wondering if we're gonna do our movie night."

Phoenix nodded. "Wouldn't miss it. What about you rick?"

"Command had sent me down to tell you that you upgrades are ready and they want you to help with the test run of the new VF-1J's. Also to help break in the newbies. They're waiting for you at the airbase" He folded his hands behind his head.

The Japanese girl put a finger in her chin. "That's right you're getting subordinates today aren't you?"

The lieutenant scoffed. "Don't remind me."

"Speaking of which, how do you feel about that?" Phoenix asked

Rick shrugged. "I'm more open to the idea than I was a few days ago."

Phoenix hummed. "Well, tell Lisa I'm on my way."

Into the k

The two turned and walked away. Phoenix stood up and turned to the workers.

"I've gotta go, the military calls!" Phoenix shouted.

They waved goodbye as Phoenix entered guardian mode and ascended in to the sky. Once he was well above the buildings, he changed into fighter and he made his way to the airbase. The veritech circled the base to get an aerial view. Several Vf-1J's were lined up as flight crews worked on them. Many of the advanced fighters had Skull squadron paint jobs. Only Ffour of them had oddball paint jobs, one was primarily blue with white stripes, the other had a beige design. The other two he recognized, the Skull leader design and the red stripe design.

* * *

 **OBJECYIVE LOCATION REACHED**

 **LINING UP FOR LANDING**

 **ACTIVATING PROTOCOL EDI**

* * *

 **Macross Air Force Base, Macross Island  
August 9, 2014 0929 hours**

^ _I'm old enough to rock n roll^_

 _^I'm old enough^_

Roy sighed. "There he goes again."

One of subordinates that was sitting next him asked. "Who.

The one who spoke was Max Sterling. He a bit small compared to some of the other pilots here, but he was taller than Rick. He had on a white and blue flight suit with his helmet on the ground. Max had blue hair and wire frame glasses covering his _ eyes. Ben Dixon was the other subordinate, and he had some muscle mass. He had brown hair and _ eyes. His suit was white and beige. Ben was usually boisterous where Max was humble.

Roy ran his hand through his hair. "Oh just Phoenix. He can be a little bit of a show off."

As if to prove Roy's point, Phoenix did a fly-by over their heads. He turned sharply and lined himself with the runway. He shifted into guardian mode and stuck his legs forward to slow down. The feet scraped against the ground until they were solid on it. The engines were cut and Phoenix turned right and inertia still carried him the same direction. Battleloid mode was activated and he slammed his hand against the ground, stopping right in front of the humans. The runway had a few scrape marks but was relatively unscathed. The runway was also modded to handle mechs.

Phoenix stood up as the music cut. "How was it?"

"Some fireworks, a little smoke, but otherwise not bad." Roy commented. "Meet Rick's subordinates, your new wingmen."

Max walked up. "Hi, I'm Max Sterling. I must say it's an honor to meet you. I would shake your hand but…"

Phoenix laughed. "It's a pleasure."

Skull leader slapped the bluehead on the shoulder. "This kid sure is something. He passed that Mecha Combat course you made with a solid 100%."

The rookie rubbed his head. "Yeah it was slightly difficult."

"Slightly difficult? I was shot down in the first three minutes. How in the hell did you make that?" Ben exclaimed in disbelief.

"Anime." Phoenix said straight.

Ben just stared in more disbelief.

Phoenix held up a hand. "Ok. More like various works of fiction. I went on a beige awhile back of various movies and shows and other entertainment related to Mecha and robots. After I had observed them I created that simulator to learn how to do Mecha Combat."

"What can't you just use normal dogfighting skills with veritechs." Ben asked.

Roy answered. "You can but in the simulator I noticed it was kinda ineffective. Mecha Combat is an odd combination of dogfighting skills and ground combat skills. It's hard to explain but it's effective against both air and ground units. It is a rather complicated style but handy."

Ben gestured to Roy. "What did you get?"

"I only got a 61." The ace answered.

"What about Rick?"

"59."

"Speaking if which, where is our squad leader?" Max asked.

"Right here!" Rick shouted as he drifted the military jeep in beside them. He hopped out. "Sorry I'm late. The taxi stayed five below the speed limit."

"Well we're late for our test flight. You can make your introductions in the sky. Let's go." Roy rushed everyone to the jets.

Stepped off the runway and let everyone take off. It took some time as Skull squadron was a ten man group. Vermilion was only three but that totaled to thirteen jets. After they finished taking off, Phoenix repeated his VTOL takeoff like at the construction site. He pulled up in between Roy and Rick who were heading a V-formation. The group did some basic maneuvers, turns, rolls, and the like. They had a guy climb as high as the jet could go but as he was nearing the altitude limit of the Sr-71 they brought him back down.

^Looks like everything checks out, but no idea how these would handle in combat.^ Roy declared

^Why not? We have the live combat simulator.^ Phoenix asked.

^Live combat sim?^ Ben asked.

Phoenix affirmed. ^Yeah works kinda like laser tag. You get hit and your jet will enter autopilot and land you at the airbase. What do ya think?^

He heard an unanimous agreement but Rick had an issue. ^Who's gonna be the enemy or are we gonna teams.^

Max piped up. ^Well, we're comparing the VF-1J's to Phoenix, right? So it makes that we fight him.^

Roy agreed, ^Max's logic is sound. Well, Phoenix?^

^Thirteen against one? Not fair, but I'm game.^ Phoenix hit the afterburners and disappeared from their sight.

* * *

 **LOCATING LIVE COMBAT SIMULATOR…  
FOUND**

 **LOCATION: (SMS/SIMS/IRL/LIVE COMBAT SIM)  
DOWNLOADING...**

…

 **DOWNLOAD COMPLETE  
RUNNING SIM**

 **SIM LOADOUT DISTRIBUTED TO ALL UNITS  
1 X ENERGON PULSE CARBINE/3,200 AHEAD ROUNDS/2 X SPARE CARBINE MAGAZINES**

 **12 X SEMRAAM (SYNTHETIC ENERGON MEDIUM RANGE AIR-TO-AIR MISSLES)  
24 X SESRAAM MICRO-MISSILES (SYNTHETIC ENERGON SHORT RANGE AIR-TO-AIR MISSLES)**

 **2 X FAST PACK ADDITIONAL FUELSYSTEMS**

 **ACTIVATING PROTOCOL EDI**

* * *

^ _put on your war paint^_

 _^you are a big time Juliet^_

 _^striking me down^_

 _^light a match and burn me to the ground^_

Phoenix chose his 'theme song' as his fellow wingmen call it. Protocol EDI is just more than theme music, it jams the enemy's radios on all channels and throws them into chaos. However, since this was allied radios he kept to a few channels. Once he felt he was out of sight he pulled that Loop-de-loop maneuver he used on the Predacon. Phoenix made sure to use his shadow device to disappear from their sensors, but they did the same. At this point he was coming right down on them, all he needed to use was some math and he'd be in the prime attack position. However, the veritech had performed the maneuver in a cloud.

Phoenix continued his maneuver and primed his 'weapons'. The sim worked on radio signals between the fighters and projects the line of fire for the Gunpods, and missiles. It also shows their projectile paths on the HUDS making as life-like as possible. The sim breaks in the fighters and tests out the skills of the two rookies. He came out of the cloud at as he had predicted they were still in formation. Phoenix locked his Micro-missiles on the most dangerous Rick, Roy and…

'Wait. Where's Max?' He thought.

Phoenix got a missile warning and he pulled out of the dive and into some hardcore evasive maneuvers. Best thing about not being a fleshie, don't have to worry about the g-forces. Max flew by before he entered battleloid mode and fired a burst from his Gunpod. Phoenix barrel rolled avoiding the sim rounds, then transformed into battleloid and fired at Max. The two combatants circled around each other, firing round after round including the occasional missile at each other. The battle didn't last long as the rest of the V-formation joined in on the fight. Phoenix fired a wide swarm of Micro-missiles. Micro-missiles are missiles that launch twenty smaller missiles. The barrage took out three jets, they turned and headed for the landing strip.

Phoenix could tell this was gonna be an interesting fight.

* * *

 **SDF-1 Bridge, Macross Island  
August 9, 2014 1049 hours**

If the bridge crew wasn't on the Samuels, they were on the SDF-1 manning the bridge, keeping an eye on Phoenix.

"Lisa, what is the status of the test run for the new veritech fighters?" Gloval asked

The Coms-officer fiddled with some switches on her dashboard. "It looks like they're running that Live Combat Sim."

Gloval hummed. "Whose idea was that?"

"Phoenix's, sir."

"What I thought, go ahead and put it up on the main screen. Let's see how our top pilots do against Phoenix." Gloval smirked.

Lisa flipped a switch and the clear glass suddenly became a screen. As information streamed from the fighters and created a 3D model for the bridge crew to view at any angle. The girls exclaimed in amazement as Phoenix and the two squadrons battled it out. Despite being outnumbered, he was holding quite well. It seemed as if his focus was on Roy, rick and a VF with a blue paint scheme. Every time Phoenix went up against that blue fight, they're head-to-head in skill.

"Who's the piloting that blue veritech?" Claudia ask.

Lisa looked at her station. "Max sterling. It says here that he completed the Mecha Combat sim with… a hundred percent."

Sammie exclaimed. "But Phoenix is the only one who managed that."

"Not anymore." Lisa said.

'A rookie who's in his first veritech, is matching Phoenix bullet for bullet. This Max is certainly an impressive pilot.' Gloval thought to himself.

"Captain, a call is coming in from our Autobot Watch team." Lisa notified.

"Let me talk to them." He ordered

Lisa nodded and did as she was told.

Gloval picked up the phone beside the captain's. "Hello. This is Captain Gloval."

"Hello Gloval, This is Agent Smith. We have a problem." A deep male voice spoke.

"Go ahead." The Captain affirmed.

"It seems that Agent Fowler is trying to find out our secret." Said Smith

Gloval hummed. "Go ahead and confront him, tell him everything. I'm already planning on Phoenix joining Team Prime."

"Yes, sir." Agent Smith hung up.

Gloval set down the phone and folded his hands together and placed his chin on it.

"What is it, sir?" Lisa asked.

"Agent Fowler had been trying to find out about us and since we're going to bring the Autobots into the fold, I've told Smith to tell Fowler first. Bring in our veritechs, land them at the Samuels. The schedule has been pushed up." The captain declared as he stood up

"But what about Phoenix's melee upgrade." Lisa exclaimed.

Gloval walked towards the door. "It'll have to be performed on the Samuels."

Gloval hit his head on the door on his way out. He rubbed his forehead and continued on.

* * *

 **DEACTIVATING PROTOCOL EDI**

 **HALTING SIM…**

 **RECEIVING NEW OBJECTIVES…  
RECEIVED**

 **NEW PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:  
-RETURN TO PHOENIX NEST  
-RECEIVE UPGRADE  
-PREPARE FOR NEXT MISSION**

 **ENTERING COURSE FOR PHOENIX NEST**

* * *

 **Autobot HQ, Fowlers office, Nevada  
August 9** **th** **, 2014 1100 hours**

Fowler was sitting in his office with Raf. Raf was currently using his computer to hack into the NUN servers. Fowler hated having the pre-teen boy do this but Optimus had requested the Agent to collect anything he could find about SMS and Phoenix. It was kind of out of nowhere but Fowler did his best. Apparently his best means absolutely nothing because all he could find was the NUN server, no real information So, Raf is trying his trade and breaking into NUN. Right now they were only three levels in, they still haven't found much.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Raf exclaimed.

Fowler asked. "What's wrong?"

The boy typed furiously. "I just lost connection. I think they cut the hard lines."

"We did." A man in a tuxedo walked in. He had dark hair and blue eyes. Raf hid behind Fowler

Fowler drew his pistol that was hidden under his desk. "Who the hell are you?"

"Smith. Agent Smith." The agent pulled out a card. "Of the NUN SMS."

Agent Fowler took the card but kept the pistol elevated. It read:

New United Nations

Special Military Service

The Autobot representative handed the card back and holstered the gun back under the table.

Agent Smith pointed to the open chair on the other side of Fowler. "May I sit?"

"Of course." Fowler said tersely.

Smith took the seat and placed his folded hands in his lap. "You must be wondering _why_ I'm here?"

"Among other things."

The SMS Agent spread his hands. "Simple. I'm here to bring you into the fold."

"What fold?" Raf asked nervously

"The fold known as Phoenix and Robotechnology." Agent Smith smirked

Fowler scowled. "You have my interest."

"Good." Smith leaned forward. "I'll start at the beginning. Six years ago a ship crashed into the Pacific on an island near Hawaii. Around that time NUN was formed. They dedicated themselves to rebuilding this ship and learning what they can about its technology. Over half a year ago they built a new kind of fighter jet one that can _transform._ " Agent smith smirked at the surprise on their faces. "Yes. You know who I'm talking about. _Phoenix_. Now, the man I'm representing is offering a merger of our two forces. Team Prime and the SMS, specifically those relating to Phoenix. What do you say?"

Fowler folded his hands in thought. "I have to talk with prime."

The Agent stood and straightened his suit. "That's fine with me. I'm just the messenger. Phoenix will be here in little over three days, with my superior. Have your decision ready by then."

Agent Smith left through the front door.

Raf came out from behind Fowler. "I guess we got what Optimus wanted."

Agent fowler nodded. "Close to it, anyways. Let's go to tell Prime."

Fowler stood up and led Raf out to the Autobot base.

* * *

 **Deck of the Samuels, Pacific ocean  
August 10, 2014 1304 hours**

"I just love the ocean, don't you?" A wonder struck Minmei asked.

Rick just sighed. "I do, but I'm still a little fuzzy on how you got on here."

Her chest swelled with pride. "A girl like me has her ways."

"Her ways including a personal invitation by Dr. Lang. As way to control the flow of memories." Interrupted Phoenix.

The three of them were sitting on the edge of the ship looking out the ocean. Gloval had ordered suddenly for everyone to report to the Samuels. Later, he explained that they were heading back to Jasper to join forces with the Autobots. Internally, Phoenix was ecstatic. Lang said if he was with the Autobot, his memories might return faster. Lang had also said that if Phoenix had an 'anchor' to his life in the SMS the memories won't return so fast that could cause issues. Which has led to them on the deck of the ship sea-watching.

^Phoenix, please report to the Cage for upgrades.^ Lisa said over the loud speakers

"Well, there goes that." Commented the Mech as he stood up and headed to the elevator

Rick called out "See you later."

"Bye!" Minmei shouted.

Phoenix waved as the elevator brought him down. Once he was down, he walked over and sat in the cage. Once again, he was locked in place however his forearms were left unlocked. Off to the sides were a pair of new forearms resting on platforms, they didn't look different from the one's he currently had.

Dr. Lang walked in front of Phoenix. "Today you're gonna be receiving those melee upgrades you asked."

"Finally!" Phoenix cheered.

"Yeah, yeah. Just start deactivating your arms, will ya?" Lang waved is hand in dismissal.

* * *

 **ISOLATING NUERO-CURCUITRY CONNECTIONS IN LOWER ARMS…  
ISOLATED**

 **DEACTIVATING NUERO-CURCUITRY CONNECTIONS IN LOWER ARMS…  
DEACTIVATED**

 **ISOLATING DATA-RECEPTORS FOR LOWER ARMS…  
ISOLATED**

 **DEACTIVATING DATA-RECEPTORS FOR LOWER ARMS…  
DEACTIVATED**

* * *

"There, you're good to go." Phoenix declared.

Lang beckoned to some engineers who were standing by on one of the catwalks. They rushed over and climbed onto Phoenix's arms. They worked at his forearms with power tools until a loud metallic click and hiss rang out in the deck. One of the engineers gestured to a pair of cranes that lifted the old arms away. After they were set down, the cranes were re-hooked to the new arms and carried over. Once they were set down, the engineers attached them. After a thumbs-up was confirmed, Phoenix reactivated his arms.

* * *

 **ACTIVATING NUERO-CURCUITRY CONNECTIONS IN LOWER ARMS…  
ACTIVATED**

 **ACTIVATING DATA-RECEPTORS FOR LOWER ARMS…  
ACTIVATED**

 **NEW SOFTWARE UPDATES PENDING…**

…

 **RECEIVING UPDATES**

…

 **DOWNLOADING FILE "SMS/PROJECT_VALKYRIE/WEAPONS/INTERAL_BLADE"**

 **DOWNLOADING…**

 **DOWNLOADING…**

 **INSTALLING SYSTEMS UPDATE…**

 **INSTALLING "MELEE INTERFACE"…**

 **INSTALLED**

* * *

Phoenix flexed his hand. "Feels a little stiff, but no different."

Lang shrugged, "It really isn't but try out that new update."

Phoenix did try it out. From above his hand extended a blade that twice the length of his forearm.

"Now, that is pretty impressive." Phoenix complimented.

Lang assured. "It's sharp enough slice an Insecticon's armor like a hot knife through butter. It would take a few hits on the Predacon, but still do the trick."

Phoenix retracted the blade. "It'll help a lot. How long 'til we make shore?"

"A day or two."

"Alright."

* * *

 **Autobot HQ, Nevada  
August 12, 2014 1124 hours**

Arcee leaned against the back wall of the base, thinking more than anything. Raf and Miko were at school. Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Wheeljack and Smokescreen were playing that wrecker game of theirs. As always Bulkhead managed to break something important to Ratchet. Like always, Ratchet got mad. Neither Optimus nor Ultra Magnus were nowhere to be seen. Most likely they were discussing the information that Agent Fowler had brought in. Arcee really didn't care about some ship that crashed. Her only thought was Jack or Phoenix or whatever they call him. Fowler had said that Phoenix and some SMS guys would be here today.

Arcee could faintly hear something in the distance, she walked outside. In the distance she saw a helicopter. A Blackhawk, she believed.

"You might wanna cut down on the racket." She called out to the bot's inside. "They're here."

Optimus and Ultra Magnus came out of the warehouse next door. The rest of Team Prime walked out as the helicopter made its landing. The side door opened and two men walked out. One was in a lab coat with brown hair and solid black eyes, the other was in a blue captain's uniform. He had black hair and blues eyes with a mustache. The two men walked up fearlessly to the cybertronians.

The captain spoke. "Hello. I'm Captain Gloval of the SMS. This is Dr. Lang, our top mind."

Optimus nodded. "I'm Optimus Prime. May we go inside where we can speak more comfortably?"

"Of course." Gloval replied.

The Autobots went inside and the humans followed. Gloval and Lang climbed the catwalk that the Autobots were gathered around.

Once at the top Gloval spoke. "You must have many questions, but I think we should talk about the elephant in the room. Phoenix."

Unsettlement stirred among the Autobots but Arcee stewed in anger. It was time to see if she was right.

Gloval took off his hat. "First, how do I put this…? Phoenix is Jack but not in the way you think."

"Oh? What do you mean by that?" Arcee hissed.

Optimus gave her a reproachful look.

Gloval sighed. "You know the condition that Jack was in seven months ago. A couple of our agents came to him with an offer. We offered an escape from that. And I use as similar words our agents did. The consequences were the loss of his body. And he may have temporary memory loss."

"What the hell do you mean?" Arcee growled.

"It's the side effect of the operation. The removal of his brain and placement inside of a war machine." Lang recited.

"That's messed up." Smokescreen commented

Arcee marched up and pointed her blaster. "So you treated Jack like a lab rat!"

Wheeljack smirked. "Ooh. This just got interesting."

Optimus reached over rested his hand on the blaster, and gently pushed it down. "I only have one question. Did you give Jack a choice?"

"We did. I gave explicit orders that Jack would have a choice." Gloval answered.

"While I may question the morality of it. You gave Jack the choice to accept your offer or not." Optimus stepped back.

Arcee stared at the Autobot leader in disbelief. "You can't just accept that."

Ultra Magnus butted in. "I only know what you all have told me, but what I understand is that the condition he was in was a no survival situation. Even if he lived long enough he'd only received a disease that would kill him."

Arcee growled but reluctantly retracted her blaster.

"There is one more thing you need to know. During the operation he lost his memories, however they are retrievable. We noticed that if he's exposed to people or events that relate to his memories, they're forced out. We're hoping that being among you may bring all of his memories back."

Arcee's anger cooled down slightly at the idea of bringing jack back. "I'll go along."

Various forms of assent spread among the Autobots.

Gloval nodded. "Now you have a few hours before Phoenix gets here. Get your acts together."

Bulkhead stepped forward. "Get our acts together? What do you mean by that?"

Lang answered, "If you are too direct with Phoenix being Jack, his memories may come to fast and could cause damage, maybe insanity. You must treat him like your just meeting him, like he's Phoenix not Jack."

"So, treat him like a stranger. Not a problem." Arcee said sarcastically.

Optimus looked at Arcee with concern. "Will you be alright?"

Arcee lied. "I'll be fine."

Honestly the femme didn't know if she'll be able to keep a pokerface around Phoenix. She could only hope that she could hang in long enough for Jack to remember.

* * *

 **So a lot of you noticed "agent smith". that happened accidentally. I was trying to come up with a name for the guy and smith popped up and then next thing i knew i put agent smith from matrix in here. I kept him because i might have some plans later.**

 **now, Macross Rising is gonna have more larger scale battles like in the movies, than the small skirmishes that happened on the show**

 **songs:**

 **i'm old enough to rock n roll - rainey haynes - iron eagle soundtrack**

 **The phoenix - fall out boy**


	6. Falling inside the Black

**I'm sorry for the delay, I had a rough time trying to write this. Various things happened including writers block, and I didn't have 'net for a short while, so I couldn't look up the right stuff needed for this chapter. Once again, I'm sorry for the delay.**

 **Without any more delay (da domp tsh) chapter six and the start of our first story arc.**

 **Oh, warning. Bad language later on in this chapter.**

* * *

 **Autobot HQ, Nevada**  
 **August 12, 2014 1414 hours**

"So, wait." Miko held her hands up. "Jack is a now a super awesome, transforming, 'con-kicking mech?"

"Uhh… I… guess?" Lang said, confused.

It has been a few hours since Captain Gloval explained the situation to the Autobots. Soon after Bulkhead and Bumblebee had picked up their respective human partners from school. Gloval and Lang had given them a rendition of the situation. It was shorter and much simpler as they could make it. Out of the possible reactions and outcomes including that of Arcee's, the confusion and surprise was the one they were hoping for. So, in Gloval's mind they're taking this whole thing rather well.

"If Jack's alive then shouldn't we tell his mom?" Raf asked.

Optimus shook his head. "Unfortunately not, Raf. Her reaction would be much worse would be worse than Arcee's."

Wheeljack barked out a short sarcastic laugh.

Gloval placed a comforting hand on the young boy's shoulder. "Besides, she would take it better if Jack had his memories back."

"I guess." Raf mumbled.

Fowler leaned on the railing. "Speaking of which, where is Jack… Phoenix?"

Lang looked at his watch. "He should be here any minute, especially at those speeds."

The captain looked towards the open hanger door where Arcee's shoulder peeked out from the edge. Ever since the Raf and Miko were picked up, she's been out there, leaning against the wall and scanning the skies. On their way over, Lang had told Gloval a theory that he didn't believe at first. Lang had thought that Phoenix reacted so strongly to Arcee is because his feelings for her are stronger than friends. Looking at Arcee now, Gloval thinks those feelings are mutual if unrealized.

"Captain Gloval." Optimus called. "May I have a word in private?"

"Of course, I have my own word to speak of." The Naval Officer stepped down the stairs while the prime transformed into his new truck form.

Once he was down the stairs, Gloval climbed inside Optimus on the passenger side. The two of them drove off and pulled onto the road that surrounded the base. Optimus circled around the base a few times. After the third or fourth cycle, Gloval turned on the radio to some random country station. It was loud enough that anyone listening from the outside wouldn't be able to hear a thing but Optimus and Gloval would be able to talk to each other.

"That's unnecessary, Captain Gloval." Optimus stated.

The human pulled down his hat. "Forgive me but one doesn't get this far in any military without being careful."

"That is understandable."

Gloval pulled out his tobacco and pipe. "I'm willing to bet that the words we have to share are the same."

Optimus confirmed, "Arcee and Phoenix."

"Yes." Once the pipe was filled with tobacco, it was lit. "We have both seen how they react to each other. I worry there might be later instances."

"It seems our fears are the same," Agreed the Autobot leader. "But what should we do to prevent such possible instances?"

The human leader blew out some smoke in thought. "We could keep them on separate teams and missions to divert their attention from each other or keep them on the same team and keep their attention focused on each other to the point of inattention."

Optimus hummed. "The former could cause one of them to disobey orders and hurry to the others aid, if the right situations arise. The latter could have the same results but if they are constantly seeing each other, they'll have visual confirmation that they're safe and focus on the mission. My vote's the latter."

"I see." He puffed some more of his narcotic. "We'll have to set up escorts to make sure things won't go awry. I may have a few suggestions…"

The country music on the radio was replaced with Japanese rock as a V-formation of familiar jets flew over-head.

^Jibun wo sekai sae mo kaete shimaesou na^

^Shunkan ha itsumo sugu soba ni^

"… That'd be discussed later. They're here." Gloval finished as shook the ashes out of the pipe and out the window. Optimus turned around and headed back to the base.

* * *

Arcee watched as fighter after fighter landed at the base, each identical to Phoenix in all but paint scheme. Finally, one that matched Phoenix landed and Arcee moved to greet him. She stopped when she saw that the fighter was manned. A human in a red flight suit crawled out. The last fighter came in for a landing but instead transformed directly to battleloid. By pure coincidence or maybe purpose, the mech stopped in front of Arcee. Judging by the design of his head, this is Phoenix. He had exchanged his red with some orange with a Phoenix decal on his chest.

"I like the new look." Arcee commented casually, crossing her arms.

He shrugged and thumbed to the jet that shared his old paint job. "On the way over, we had some confusion between me and Rick."

The femme nodded. "I can imagine."

Optimus Prime pulled up nearby and let Gloval out.

Phoenix took notice and called out. "Attention!"

All the SMS pilots including Phoenix stepped into a line, facing the officer and saluted. The music that was playing in the background cut out. Arcee raised an eyebrow. The speed at which the pilots had come to attention was impressive. Even if, she found the whole thing quite unnecessary but every society had its customs. Just the other day, Wheeljack was telling her how on his travels he had encountered that juggled baby birds that were like geese, goslings.

"At ease." Gloval said as he returned the salute.

Immediately, the humans returned to assisting the runway crews taxi the planes into the warehouses

Phoenix turned back to Arcee. "Sorry. SOP."

"It's fine." She replied in understanding.

"So…" Phoenix scratched his head. "About the other day. I'm sorry if I caused you any anguish."

Arcee's spark sank. Here was the hard part. Speaking about Jack like he's dead, when the mech in front of her _was_ Jack.

Arcee choked on the words as she spoke them. "No, it's fine. Your voice reminded me of someone that I knew."

Optimus suggested to everyone, "Let's head inside to start introductions."

Arcee and Phoenix followed the two commanders inside. The motorcycle 'bot was finally able to get a good judge on how tall Phoenix was. The white mech was a little taller than Optimus prime. As soon as the three machines made it inside, Miko ran up to Phoenix.

"Dude, Do you even know how rad you are?" The Japanese girl shouted. "You can transform into an F-14. The best jet. The way you took down the Predacon… AWESOME! And the music! FREAKING GREAT! Was that the Code Geass opening?" She finished calmly.

Silence filled the room.

"Ok, in order." Phoenix counted out on his fingers. "Thank you. They chose the F-14 'cause it accommodated the transformation best. Thank you again, twice. Yes, it was the Code Geass opening."

Bulkhead laughed. "He's quick. Keeping up with Miko like that's difficult."

"You'd know." Arcee added in.

"Yeah, he's fast, but is he tough?" Wheeljack picked up the lob-ball and threw it at Phoenix at full strength.

The SMS mech caught it without even budging. Phoenix got a little fancy with his return throw. He executed a series of acrobatic spins and flips using the inertia to increase the speed of the ball when Phoenix threw it. Wheeljack caught the ball but was sent flying. The demolitions expert landed a dozen meters away. Bulkhead helped the grinning 'bot up.

"Seems like he's tough enough to me." Smokescreen commented.

Gloval cleared his throat from his position on the platform.

"Sorry, sir." Phoenix apologized.

Gloval sighed. "Where's Lieutenant Fokker and Lieutenant Hunter?"

"They're scouting out the area, looking for a good F.O.B. setup as ordered."

Arcee crossed her arms. "Why do you need a Forward Operating Base?"

Gloval looked to Optimus.

The Autobot stepped forward. "I am accepting the Captain's offer of our two forces."

"But Optimus," Ratchet questioned. "Weren't you against the humans getting involved in our war with the Decepticons?"

"Indeed I was, but that was before the humans had the capacity to fight on out scale."

Gloval explained. "This task force will be independent of the SMS and will be under the joint command of Optimus and I. It'll be called the Robotech Defense Force or the RDF."

Ultra Magnus spoke up. "We know what we can bring to this alliance but what do you have to offer?"

Gloval smirked. "Fourteen Veritech fighters piloted by out top aces. Over eighty F-35E's with two hundred Destroids of varying classes. More of both being built daily. Including several battalions of specially trained marines, equipped with appropriate weapons."

Wheel jack clapped. "Now, that's impressive."

The comms center started beeping.

Ratchet turned his attention back to his station and pressed a few keys. "I'm detecting Decepticon movement. Looks like a mining op."

Optimus nodded. "Open a Groundbridge. I'm going to intercept."

Gloval suggested, "Would you mind taking Lieutenant Fokker? It'll help him train the other on how you operations work."

"I would not mind."

Gloval walked down the steps to notify said lieutenant. He wouldn't be happy that he parked his jet only to take off again. He wouldn't mind flying again, though.

* * *

 **Decepticon warship Nemesis**  
 **August 12, 2014 1445 hours**

"Oh, will my torment never end?" Starscream started pacing and moaned in agony. "First, I had to vie for Megatron's favor against that treacherous harpy, Arachnid. Now, I must contend with Shockwave and his incorrigible beast!"

"Oh, look on the bright side, Starscream, at least one of them is currently on ice, locked up tight in the vault of our warship." Knock Out comforted.

"How I would love to stuff Shockwave and his mangy abomination in that stasis pod beside her." The jet 'con walked to the side of Knock out. "The only reason his 'Project Predacon' is in full swing is because I supervised the acquisition of his dozens of bones."

Cylas who's strapped to the lab table started groaning in agony.

"Will you please keep your lab rat quiet while I'm airing my grievances?" Complained the second-in-command.

"Starscream, help me." The cyborg begged.

Starscream chuckled. "My, my, my, whatever have you been inflicting on poor Cylas?"

"Anything that merits the need for a living petri dish." Said the vain Decepticon as he held up an injector filled with Synth-En.

Knock Out injected Cylas with the liquid energy and his eyes turned green. His groans of pain turned to screams of rage.

"Starscream! I hoped you replaced your T-cog because I'm gonna tear it out!" Threated the cyborg.

"Why are you turning him into a psychopath?" The second-in-command cringed.

"I'm testing the Autobot formula for Synth-En. So far, we've hit a few… wrinkles."

Starscream hummed. "Is there any chance you can use the Synth-En as a… Super Soldier serum?"

Knock Out smirked. "In order to have the chance to outshine Shockwave? Sign me up. However, I'll need something to actually him 'super'."

Starscream let a sinister grin spread across his face. "I'll be right back."

True to his word, for once, he came right back. In his right arm he carried a cube of Red Energon.

Knock Out stared in disbelief. "Where did you get that?"

"I kept a container of it, if the need should ever arise." He responded.

"Has a need arisen?"

"It most certainly has." Starscream set the box on the table and headed for the door. "Work on the serum. I'll go make our… 'sales pitch' as the humans call it."

* * *

 **Sonoran Desert**  
 **August 12, 2014 1501 hours**

Lieutenant Fokker and Optimus Prime flew in formation. Optimus saw a cave down below and pointed to it. Roy nodded and followed prime into a dive. Roy entered battleloid mode and the two of them landed outside the cave. They looked at the entrance that barely reached the Autobots's waist.

Optimus hummed in question.

"That might be an issue." Roy remarked.

Optimus looked up at the cliff. "What are the chances of the cave having a fissure in the ceiling that you can slip through?"

"I'm no geologist but if the cave gets large enough then maybe." Roy theorized.

The prime transformed. "Lieutenant Roy, I want you to track my movements and follow overhead. If you find such a fissure, slip through and join me."

The auto bot drove inside while the RDF pilot returned to the skies. As Optimus drove on, the cave slowly began to increase in size. The cave twisted and winded and went every direction possible. Eventually he found the dig site, where five Insecticons and ten Vehicons were present. One of the Vehicons were manning the drill. Above on the ceiling was the exact kind of fissure they were looking for.

Optimus stopped and turned on his high beams. "Abandon the excavation. Now."

"Attack!" Commanded an Insecticon.

Two of the five Insecticons followed by five Vehicons charged Prime and Optimus returned the charge. He counteracted with a pair of missiles, one took out the Vehicons while the other blew apart an Insecticon. Optimus transformed and performed an uppercut on the last charging 'con. Optimus continued his charge, dragging the Insecticon against the ceiling. Optimus let the 'con drop and used his internal blaster on his other to blow a hole through his chest.

The other eight Decepticons readied their blasters to fire but was interrupted when Fokker crushed two Vehicons from the fissure in battleloid mode. The third Vehicon turned around to fire at the RDF pilot. Roy ducked under the Energon blast and sent a burst from his Gunpod into the 'cons head. As it fell on Insecticon kicked Roy into the wall. Optimus came in and slugged the 'con. Roy got up and slid out his E-sword, stabbing the downed Insecticon. Optimus activated his internal blaster and obliterated two more Vehicons. Roy retracted his blade and brought his carbine to bear, unloading on the remaining Vehicons. The last Insecticon panicked, grabbed something out of the hole that was drilled, transformed and took off.

"Do we follow?" Roy asked.

"No." Optimus turned to the newly-drilled hole and pulled out a large fossilized Predacon bone. "This takes priority."

* * *

 **Autobot HQ, Nevada**  
 **August 12, 2014 1539 hours**

For the first time in a long time, Arcee was laughing. She was with the SMS, no, the RDF pilots. Bulkhead and Wheeljack were with her. They had exchanged greetings, names, and now stories. The Wreckers and Skull Squadron got along just as much as water and plants do. So, it was natural some stories were getting tossed around.

"'Old sourpuss'?" She managed to get out between laughs.

One of the pilots nodded, Jason, nodded. "Her face…priceless."

The laughter increased while Rick blushed.

"Wreckers, Arcee, Phoenix." Ultra Magnus walked in. "Optimus has returned. It seems the Decepticons are on the hunt Predacon bones. You're going with me on an interception run."

Wheeljack groaned as he, his fellow wrecker, and the femme mobilized.

Phoenix saluted. "I'll be right there, sir. Need time to get loaded up."

Magnus nodded. "Understood, be ready in ten."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

 **NEW PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:**  
 **-INVESTIGATE DIG SITE**  
 **-ELIMINATE ALL DECEPTICONS IN AREA**  
 **-RETREIVE PREDACON FOSSIL**

 **LOADOUT: STANDARD AIR-TO-AIR COMBAT**  
 **1 X ENERGON CARBINE/3,200 AHEAD ROUNDS/2 X SPARE CARBINE MAGAZINES**

 **12 X SEMRAAM MISSILES**  
 **24 X SESRAAM MISSILES**

 **2 X FAST PACK**

* * *

 **Decepticon warship Nemesis**  
 **August 15, 2015 1545 hours**

Starscream stormed out of the bridge where, just now, Megatron blew him off. He couldn't even get the gladiator's attention. The glorious leader was paying attention to Shockwave ramble on about his beloved predacon's. Things were so much easier when he was the only second-in-command around.

Knock Out was leaning against the wall outside the door. "So… how'd our sales pitch go?"

'Scream growled. "We may move on without our commander's permission. How's the progress on our serum?"

The two of them started walking to the lab.

Knock Out smirked. "It was simpler than I thought and I had a particular feeling that Megatron wouldn't give us the permission we needed, so I already injected him."

"Good, any results so far?"

"Some. Not all… positive." Knock Out opened the door to the lab that they had just reached.

On the lab table inside, Cylas was screaming his lungs out in the metaphorical sense. Maybe the literal sense as he roared out death threats and promises of torture. The cries echoed throughout the ship, attracting the attention of passing Vehicon troops. Acting to avoid any more unwanted attraction, Starscream shoved Knock Out inside. Starscream followed, shutting the door behind him. The two walked to Cylas.

"Despite your distinct lack of remorse for the human side, don't you feel regret about having Breakdown suffer your scientific endeavors?" Starscream questioned.

"Not really." The red 'con shrugged. "Cylas once had poor Breakdown strapped to his lab table. My old partner would love to be a part."

Cylas shouted. "I will make you suffer in ways you will not believe."

The second-in-command growled. "He's completely useless. We already have one wild beast roaming around what's the point of a second?"

Knock Out nodded. "Control's not our only issue."

As if to prove Knock Out's point, Cylas let out one last anger-filled scream before powering down.

"The Synthetic Energon quickly burned through his natural reserves before, now he can barely last half a cycle without a transfusion." Explained the mad-scientist.

Starscream scratched his chin in thought. "Wait, what did you say?"

"About his natural reserves? Well…"

Starscream shook his head. "No, no, no, before that."

"That we can't control him?"

"Maybe we can."

Once again Starscream left and this time he came back with a cube of dark Energon.

"Dark Energon?!" Shouted Knock Out. "I knew you were insane but this? Don't you remember what happened when we injected our ship with the stuff?"

"That was the result of a large transfusion." Starscream made a 'small' gesture. "I'm only asking for a small one, enough to give our glorious leader command over our super soldier."

Knock out walked over and snatched the cube out of Starscream's hand. "While I do admit that Megatron seems to have control over anything infected with the so called 'blood of Unicron', but you do realize that I report directly to Shockwave."

"No!" Snapped Starscream. "Super soldiers are part of military operations thus you report to me."

Knock Out sighed. "For the record, I was against this."

"Duly noted."

Knock Out filled an ejector with the violet liquid. Walking over to Cylas' side, he looked to Starscream for conformation that was given with a slight nod. The red 'con reluctantly injected the cyborg. At first nothing happened, only silence rang through the room. Suddenly, Cylas' eyes turned a sickly yellow and started thrashing around. He pulled at his restraints while unleashing another round of horrifying screams.

"It's alive!" Announced Knock Out.

The moment of celebration was ruined as the subject ripped free of his bindings. The two 'cons backed up towards the door as Cylas got off the table and shuffled towards them. Starscream activated his null ray blasters and Knock Out whipped out his sawblades. Both of them were ready to turn the human-cybertronian half breed into nothing more than a pile of scrap metal. However, they were stupefied when Cylas collapsed on one knee and shut down. The Cybertronians cautiously stepped forward.

"What happened?" Starscream questioned.

Knock Out answered, "It's the serum, I told you. It burns through his natural reserves at an accelerated rate."

Starscream shivered. "I think it'd be best if we avoid any transfu… AHH!"

The reason why Starscream…screamed… like a little girl because Cylas pounced and pinned the 'con to the ground. The cyborg's mouth had mutated. Now, his jaw had split into mandibles and a long snake-like tongue. It snapped at Starscream's head. The Second-in-Command dodged as much as he could in his position. Knock Out grabbed a nearby Shock Stick and jammed into the Terrorcon's back. It screeched in pain and ran full tilt into the door. The door was torn right out of its frame and run down the hall at unprecedented speeds. Soon, it had disappeared from sight.

Starscream shot up. "Did to just…?"

"…try to suck out your Energon with that thing? Sure seems that way." Knock Out finished.

"We have to destroy it!" The car 'con cried out. "If Megatron finds out, we'll be fed to the Predacon!"

Knock Out looked confused.

"Use your head." Starscream tapped his helm. "This warship is crawling with highly trained Vehicon troopers, armed for combat. The moment Cylas tries to feed, they will neutralize him for us. Problem solved."

* * *

A Vehicon trooper walked down the hallway on patrol. The day's been relatively quiet, he heard a loud crash earlier. He was told to ignore it as Knock Out was at his experiments again. So, the Vehicon walked on, oblivious to the danger that waited him at the next junction. The Terrorcon hid behind the wall and waited until the Vehicon was within range. The Terrorcon grabbed the unfortunate Decepticon and pulled him off to the side. The Vehicon screamed for help as his Energon was devoured by the abomination above him.

Once the Terrorcon finished his first kill, it got up and walked away. The aberration didn't get too far before it fell to the floor. It started to writhe and howl in agony as its body started to mutate. The smooth, boxy design was replaced a spiky, animalistic look. Its legs morphed into that of a wolf's, then its head stretched out to a point. When it shrieked, the head spilt into a beak and two jaws, inside were rows of teeth and the same snake-like tongue from before. The newly mutated Terrorcon got back up and continued its hunt for Energon. Meanwhile the once Vehicon, now Terrorcon got up and begun to find its first kill.

* * *

 **Hebrides Bluffs ,Scotland**  
 **August 12 2015 1601 hours**

Phoenix landed beside Ultra Magnus's ship, in which his friends led him to the dig site where the 'cons were looking for Predacon bones. It was finally happening. Today was the day where he would finally fight side-by-side with Arcee. He's seen the videos, he knows how she fights but seeing it on a screen and seeing it in person are two different things. Besides, he kinda has a thing for showing off and now was the ultimate chance to show off, to both his superiors and Arcee. Phoenix transformed to battleloid mode as the ships ramp lowered rest of Team Magnus.

"All right, beast hunters." Ultra Magnus announced "According to our intel, the Decepticons should be excavating for Predacon bones directly beneath us."

"On it chief." Wheeljack took off towards the cliff nearby.

"There he goes, again." Arcee commented.

"Is he always like that?" Phoenix asked.

Arcee repied. "Pretty much, yeah."

"Does Wheeljack not comprehend the chain of command? I didn't authorize him to advance without the proper cover." queried an angered officer.

Bulkhead fumbled an excuse. "I'm sure Jackie's just trying to prove himself now that you and he are working together again, sir."

"Yee-ha!" Came Wheeljack's untimely shout.

Ultra Magnus frowned and gestured for Arcee and Phoenix to cover Wheeljack and Bulkhead while they descended the cliff face. The wreckers got into a discussion about something, Phoenix couldn't hear them. Everyone slipped into silence as a Vehicon walked out of a cave below. The Autobots had hoped to stay undetected but falling rocks caused by Bulkhead's foot alerted the 'con. He looked up only to see Wheeljack descend with his katanas drawn. The Vehicon's head rolled on the ground as his body fell. Wheeljack saluted the second-in-command who wore a disapproving look on his face. Suddenly, massive group of Vehicons poured out of the cave.

"Scrap." The entire group of Autobots including Phoenix swore.

Wheeljack slid his faceplate into place and charged the onslaught of Vehicon troopers. Phoenix thought the guy was nuts, there must be over thirty 'cons. Wheeljack stabbed one the chest while he slashed another across the chest. Bulkhead dropped down, crushing one into the size of a pancake. He blasted two in the chest. Wheeljack roundhouse kicked another, sending him sprawling on the ground. The 'con feebly attempted to get up only to be crushed by the 'forge of solus prime' brought down by the hands of Ultra Magnus.

^this will be the day we've been waiting for^

^this will be the day we open up the door^

Phoenix dropped in, firing his gun-pod, and killing three different 'cons. Arcee dropped on another and snapped his neck. She rolled off his body as it fell and fired her blaster into the head of the next. Phoenix stabbed a second 'con and threw him at a charging group. Bulkhead picked a Vehicon and tossed him towards Wheeljack who parted the Decepticon at the middle. As if on instinct Arcee and Phoenix went back-to-back. Both of them holstered their blasters and activated their blades as group of five Vehicons charged them.

Phoenix blocked a swipe and severed the arm. As the 'con clutched its arm in agony Arcee came around and decapitated him. Arcee jumped in the air as Phoenix spun low and swiped out the legs of three distracted Vehicons. While in midair Arcee fired her blasters into the sparks of the downed 'cons. The last 'con watched as Arcee grabbed his head with her feet and twist it off. Ultra Magnus swung the massive hammer in wide side arc crushing three more. Wheeljack entered a flurry of blades attacks that downed six more. Using a mixture of blaster fire and mace attacks bulked defeated the last of them. As the action died down, so did the music.

"Well," Phoenix needlessly dusted his hands. "That was a thing."

"I'll say." Wheeljack agreed as he slid back his faceplate.

"That's why we wait for cover." Magnus criticized.

A metallic knocking come from Wheeljack.

"Ah, bolts." He grimaced as an opening formed on his chest.

Miko crawled out gasping for air and looking a little green. Bulkhead looked around nervously while Arcee face palmed.

Wheeljack carried Miko over to a nearby boulder. "Forgot you were in there, kid."

Miko gasped. "At least I didn't heave on any formats." Speaking too early, the boulder was colored in vomit.

Magnus stormed over and got in Wheeljack's face. "And what could've possible compelled you to bring the native?"

The demolitions expert stared off into space.

"Are your circuits impaired, soldier?" Magnus asked expectantly.

Wheeljack explained. "Prime told you to lead the Wreckers on this one. I assumed he meant all of 'em."

Magnus scowled. "Are you mocking your commanding officer?"

"Wouldn't think of it, sir. The kid's a full-blown wrecker. Isn't that right, Bulkhead?"

"Well…" The massive bot stammered.

"Look. She may be small, but she saved my tail pipe. Snuffed an Insecticon all on her own." Wheeljack continued to defend the human girl.

"Outside standard protocol, no doubt." Countered the second-in-command.

Arcee stepped in. "I can vouch for her, sir. She's able to keep calm even in the most dangerous of situations."

Miko clarified, "The point is, sir. I can take care of myself.

Phoenix didn't hear the conversation, as the entire world seemed to black-out.

* * *

 _Miko ran out into the open to take a picture of the 'con._

 _"Not of that! of that!" He shouted as he pointed at the cybertonian computer._

 _Miko nodded and took a photo of the right object then dodged a Decepticon foot. He grabbed Raf and the three of them made a break for the massive door._

* * *

"Phoenix. Phoenix!" Arcee shouted.

Slowly his optical sensors reactivated revealing to him that he had fell to the ground. The Autobots were standing ever him worried while Miko watched from her boulder.

"What happened?" Phoenix asked groggily.

"Don't know. You just… keeled over." Bulkhead notified.

Magnus helped the RDF Mech up. "Are you fit for combat, soldier?"

* * *

 **RUNNING DIAGNOSTIC…**

 **TESTING NEURO-CIRCUITRY …**  
 **UNCHANGED**

 **TESTING COMBAT PROGRAMS…**  
 **UNCHANGED**

 **TESTING PSYCOLOGICAL STATUS…**  
 **DETECTING SIGNS OF DURESS**

 **REPORT IMMEDIATELY TO DR. LANG FOR CHECK-UP**

* * *

"Ready to kick 'con a… err… tailpipe, sir." Phoenix replied, almost saying something Miko really shouldn't hear.

'She's easily influential. The last thing we need is her cussing like a sailor around Raf.'

Magnus nodded. "Prepare to move out. Miko, I have something to ask of you."

Magnus stepped over to the boulder where Miko stood. They started whispering about something. Phoenix couldn't hear them nor did he want to. What they talk about is their own business.

* * *

 **Nemesis**  
 **August 12, 2014 1604 hours**

Megatron walked down the corridors searching for that worthless pile of scrap known as Starscream. Not so long ago, the Decepticon commander had felt the 'blood of Unicron' that resided within him start pulsing. Deduced from past experiences, Megatron automatically suspects his own second-in-command. If he learns that Starscream has been getting into his own personal stores of dark Energon. However, that is not the only reason why he seeks Starscream.

Megatron had been told that Autobots are attacking their excavations. He had already sent Soundwave and Shockwave to intercept one. Now, he planned to have Starscream take their newly returned Predacon to the other site and intercept them. Megatron contemplated going himself as reports say that the machine that helped defeat him was there. However, 'Project Predacon' takes precedence. Hopefully between the Predacon and Starscream, that human machine will be destroyed. With the tight confines of the cave, it won't be able to perform fancy maneuvers this time.

'Where is that coward?' Thought Megatron.

As if on cue Starscream slammed into him, as well as Knock out.

"Would either of you like to tell me what exactly is going on?" Demanded Lord Megatron.

"Yes. Absolutely nothing, my liege." Starscream lied, horribly.

Knock Out feebly attempted to add on, "All is quiet. Too quiet. One could even say dull."

"Funny, because the dark Energon within my spark has been pulsing." Megatron blew through any lie they could come up with.

"Allow me to handle this." Starscream assured Knock Out… "It's Knock Out's fault!" … falsely.

Knock Out was late to realize what had just happened. "Precisely, my…what?!"

Starscream continued to spin his web of half-truths and false accusations. "He infused Cylas with a cocktail of Synthetic, Red and Dark Energon, creating a monstrous mutation which is now on the verge of turning our entire crew into mindless, Energon-sucking Terrorcon's!"Megatron looked at him skeptically. "I do not what from what madness your yarns spring, Starscream, but if I learn that you have been dabbling with my Dark Energon stores again, attempting to infuse yourself with its formidable power…"

Starscream stared quaking in fear and pointed to the creeping Terrorcon behind megatron. "Uh, my liege…"

Megatron ignored him. "Let me just say, you have been awarded more chances for redemption than anyone in Decepticon history!"

A growl finally alerted the cybertronian gladiator to the danger behind him, even though he was unaware of what it really was.

The Decepticon leader turned to face it. "You there, what are you doing? I order you, stand down."

The Terrorcon's mouth mutated the same way Cylas' did before it leapt at Megatron. Big mistake. The Terrorcon was only cleaved in half by Megatron's internal blade. Relief spread through the cowards behind the lord. It was short spent as the creature started moving again. Megatron looked at it with scorn and blasted it to pieces.

Starscream shrugged. "We did try to warn you."

Megatron turned around and faced those masterminds behind this whole mess. "It would seem that you might be speaking the truth… for once. However this works in our favor. With this virus plaguing out ship, we do not need our precious asset infected also."

Starscream groaned. "Of course, my liege."

"Autobots have attacked our excavations. I need you to take the Predacon to our Scotland site. Let's see if it's as adept at hunting bones as it is returning home. Afterwards we'll discuss your punishment."

Starscream cringed. "Yes, my lord. Anything you say."

He took off towards the flight deck.

Megatron looked to Knock Out. "You. Find the abomination you created."

"As you wish, my lord." Knock Out turned and ran.

* * *

The Terrorcon stalked the halls of the warship, seeking its next victim. It has already devoured over a dozen Vehicons, even managed to claim the life of an Insecticon. It sensed an Energon presence nearby, the mechanical life force seemed to pulse sluggishly. It had also felt familiar, it's curiosity lead the creature to the Energon source. The Terrorcon would find out why it seems so familiar then it would devour. That was its sole purpose, to live, and to live is to devour others.

The Terrorcon walked up to a locked door, beyond this door is where the signature resided. It punched the lock, obliterating the device and the doors freely slid open. The abomination walked inside. The room had several things locked up in glass, including a massive sword and a brass knuckle shaped weapon, among other thing. In one of the glass containers a large egg-like object resided. The Energon signature came from inside the egg.

The Terrorcon threw itself against the glass. "Energon."

* * *

 **Hebrides Bluffs, Scotland**  
 **August 12, 2014 1632 hours**

Team Magnus walked down the cave drilled by the Decepticons. Arcee felt like it's been hours since they began this search but she knows it hasn't been that long. As important as the search is it might as well be like looking for a needle in a haystack. There's no telling how long this tunnel stretches on. The bone could of any part of a Predacon and considering that Predacons were as racially diverse as dinosaurs there's no telling how it looks. For all they know, they might've already passed it.

'Stop thinking like this.' Arcee criticized.

To divert herself from negative thoughts she struck up a conversation with Phoenix who she walked with at the back of the group. "Tell me something. What's with the music?"

Phoenix looked back at her. "Well. There's multiple things to it. Primarily, it acts like a coms jammer. All communication within a two mile radius is clogged up with music. No one's sending nor receiving."

"Not bad, but why music? Wouldn't it be simpler to just jam the coms?" Arcee asked.

Phoenix chuckled. "I didn't have a name at first. All I had was the designation 'VF-0'. However for the first… god, I don't know how long it was, but I was given the nickname EDI."

"Like stealth?"

"Yeah. See, my entire consciousness is stored in a device called the 'Cranium', kinda like EDI did in stealth. After the first… week, I started playing music when running the simulations. Eventually I started going by 'Phoenix' but Protocol EDI stuck, so did the nickname." He said that last part with irritation.

"Ah." Arcee nodded. "I noticed you and Skull Squadron were pretty close."

"More like family." Phoenix corrected. "For as long as I can remember, they're the only people I've ever known. I treat everyone on the Samuels like my siblings."

"I know the feeling."

Arcee looked into Phoenix's visor and that's when she saw it. It must've been because they were in the dark but the femme could see a pair of glowing jade eyes that were hidden behind the glass. Unfortunately before she had the chance to ask about it Miko held a up rock that did look similar to a fossilized bone.

"Is this it?!" She shouted.

Magnus turned and looked at her. "No, that is a rock."

She looked disappointed, but tossed it aside.

"So, just like old times? Huh, Jackie?" Bulkhead asked trying to alleviate the tension between him and Wheeljack.

"Yeah, except back then I didn't need permission to pick my partners." Wheeljack, said sternly.

"Come on we're all on the same team. Hey, 'beast hunters right?" Bulkhead tried to salvage the situation.

Wheeljack turned sharply to the larger Autobot. "During all those cycles it took me to travel to Earth, all I ever thought about was getting out band of brothers back together, but this isn't the lineup I had in mind." He turned to look sourly at Ultra Magnus. "You did the smart thing Bulk. Leaving when you did, when we were still bringing our A-game before the rust set in." Wheeljack resumed walking.

Miko climbed on a nearby boulder. "Wait, I thought Wheeljack was the one who left the Wreckers."

The green 'bot explained. "Jackie basically deserted the Wreckers when they fell under Ultra Magnus' command. I transferred out before that to join up with Optimus at the battle of Thunderhead Pass." Bulk' shook his head. "Sometimes, I think Jackie feels like I deserted him."

"You do not want to be the one who breaks up the band, Bulk." Miko unhelpfully commented.

Having caught to the group and heard the entire conversation, Phoenix patted Bulk's should in a comforting manner. "Look, Wheeljack has a different view on how a team works than Ultra Magnus. Wheeljack sees the team as family as do lot of soldiers in any military, no matter the branch. Magnus sees the team as a machine, which is not exactly uncommon in the military either. This kinda thing happens all the time. A different commander should be clear things up."

"Thanks"

Them the whole cave started shaking causing debris to start falling from the ceiling. Bulkhead had to intercept one that nearly fell on Miko.

"Is it an earthquake?" The Japanese girl worryingly asked.

"No." Ultra Magnus and turned around to face the way they came.

At that moment the Predacon turned around the bend running hell bent for them.

"Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" Yelled Phoenix.

Bulkhead scooped Miko up and transformed with the other Autobots. Phoenix entered guardian mode but kept his wings folded back. He started flying backwards, and kept the Predacon suppressed with Gunpod fire. The bestial cybertronian ignored the AHEAD round as he did before. The Predacon launched a fireblast that everyone managed to avoid. Phoenix turned around to avoid wasting his ammo. Arcee knew that the only things they had that could do real damage was Wheeljack's grenades and Phoenix's missile.

Miko popped her head out the window. "It's back, but how? I thought you smoked that thing?"

"I know that missile would only damage it severely, not kill it. That hide is tougher than it looks. I would need something a little bigger." Phoenix explained.

"How big?!" Wheeljack demanded.

"Anti-tank!" He answered. "And I don't have it in my loadout!"

"This way!" Magnus ordered as he took a sharp left down a side tunnel.

Everyone followed but the cave was starting to get small for Phoenix. He was forced to transform into a fighter. He activated his landing gear during the transformation and kept his wings back and his tail fins down, so that he was for all intents and purposes driving. Arcee admired his ingenuity, however if they had to turn, he was done for. Luckily enough the cave got too small for the Predacon also and it couldn't change its size. Then, the cave opened into a massive cavern.

The Autobots were able to return to robot form. Phoenix's transformation caused to do a few flips but Arcee suspects he was showing off a little. As soon Phoenix was done he faced the cave entrance with his Gunpod facing the same direction. Bulkhead set Miko on a boulder behind them before joining the others in pointing their weapons at the Predacon. The cave entrance glowed as a fireblast shot at the Autobots. They dived off to the side while Phoenix turned his back to the danger and put himself between Miko and the inferno. Much to Arcee's gratefulness the flames didn't reach far enough to do serious damage to Phoenix. He might need a new paint job though.

Phoenix turned back around and looked up. "There's a fissure up there. We might be able to slip through it, but that cave won't hold the Predacon for long. We need to call in backup."

"Wreckers don't call in back up." Wheeljack scoffed.

"What Jackie means is that we can't get a signal this far underground." Bulkhead mediated.

Magnus walked over to Miko. "Miko, I need you to go to my ship and radio in back up."

"What about my mission?" She argued. "I don't wanna go! I want to help!"

"You will help. This is your new mission: reach my ship so you can contact Optimus Prime."

Miko saluted and set something on the ground against the wall before climbing up.

"Mission?" Arcee asked.

Ultra Magnus dismissed her. "We'll discuss it later."

The ground started shacking again as a crashing noise and he Predacon's roar echoed down the tunnel.

"Not sure I like the sound of that." Wheeljack commented.

"So uh…" Bulkhead stammered.

"We make our stand…" Ultra Magnus declared as he pulled the massive hammer of his back. "Here and now."

* * *

Miko had finally reached the top, for a short while there she thought that she wouldn't make it. She crawled over the edge, and saw Magnus's ship. Luckily enough the fissure wasn't too far from it. Well, in Cybertronian terms anyways. She made a mad dash for the ship, ready to complete her other mission. Her primary mission given to her by Ultra Magnus was to record Phoenix's combat ability, so she had set up her smart phone on video and left it down there. As she got near the ship the ramp lowered. Instinctively she dived behind some boulders to hide. Starscream in the Apex Armor and a pair of Vehicons were on the loading ramp

"… it would seem the Autobots did stumble across our mining operation. No worries, my Predacon is no doubt dismantling the interlopers as we speak. It was a challenge, taming the wild beast, but I had to get it here. Away from the danger that is plaguing out ship." Starscream gloated.

"Come on, shut up already and go." Miko whispered.

"You're not wearing the Armor to protect yourself from it?" One of the Vehicons asked.

Starscream had a panicked look for a second. "From my beloved pet? No! I wore it so I could get past the monsters safely so I could rescue the poor creature. I just forgot to take it off. In fact it's getting a little stuffy in here." Starscream pressed the button on his chest and the armor retracted to just the chest piece. He set on a nearby rock. Stretching his limbs he sighed. "Ah, ventilation."

* * *

The Predacon crawled forward into the cavern. Arcee waited on top the cave while bulkhead and Wheeljack sat behind outcroppings on either side of the opening. Phoenix used his engines to get up high and was clinging to the wall. Ultra Magnus was out in the open acting as bait. The Predacon roared and charged said bait. Magnus let out his own roar as he slugged the beast with the 'forge'. He slugged several more times making sure it had its attention directed towards him.

Once he was sure, he gave the command. "Open fire!"

Wheeljack was the first to react, he hopped out and set bolts at the Predacon. It looked at him with disdain, which is when Bulkhead came out and started firing. It swiped its tail at bulk and he barely dodged it. Metal scrapped against metal. Arcee took her turn at fire pot shots at the 'con. It turned around and charged up a fireblast. It fired but Arcee was fast enough to clear the danger zone. The savage cybertronian turned around and fired a spray of flames around the cave. Magnus slid underneath it and struck with the hammer again. Taking the hit on the chest the 'con flew back into the wall.

"Now!" Magnus yelled out.

Taking his cue Phoenix dropped form the wall, E-blades out. He dropped on the Predacon, and green energy collected at the edge of his weapons. He started slashing at the stomach making long blazing cuts. The Predacon howled in pain and charged up its range attack. Seeing the danger Phoenix used his boosters to fly off the 'con and to the second-in-command's side. The monstrous Decepticon slammed its tail on Phoenix, sending him flying into the wall. It slammed its tail again, this time at Magnus.

Bulkhead intercepted and caught the appendage. "No you don't."

The Predacon only hissed and threw bulkhead into Magnus. Arcee charged fire her blasters as it got up. She performed an aerial roundhouse kick to the 'cons face. It simply looked at her as if questioning her judgement. It clamped its mouth on Arcee's side and picked her up. She screamed as sharp fangs pierced her armor. Phoenix roared out a challenge as he used his engines to slam full tilt into the predacon's side. As it keeled over it threw Arcee off to the side. The RDF Mech quickly got and flew to her side.

"Arcee!" her cradled her in his arms, as she groaned in pain.

The Predacon sauntered over to them ready to finish the nuisances.

Wheeljack fired a few bolts at the Predacon. "Hey, hothead."

The cloned beast readied another fireblast. Wheeljack merely smirked as he activated his grenade and threw at its mouth. Either by pure chance or it proved its intelligence once again, the Predacon smacked the grenade away with its tail. The explosive bounced off the wall and landed next to Bulk and Magnus. The grenade started beeping faster just in time for Bulkhead to return to consciousness and see it.

Phoenix saw it too. "Aw, son of a…"

* * *

Miko hit the ground as a giant explosion rang out behind her.

'What was that?' She mentally panicked.

However it bought her the opening she needed, as Starscream and his Vehicon guards went to investigate. Once they had passed her she resumed her dash for the ship. Thankfully, the ramp was left down. Just as she was about to reach the platform Starscream's foot planted itself don in her path. She barely stopped in time to not slam into the obstruction. She looked up to Starscream looking down…at her.

"Miko, is it?" Starscream asked.

* * *

 **Nemesis**  
 **August 12, 2014 1432 hours**

The world was black and quiet then slowly the world came to her and Arachnid reactivated. As sick and twisted as the spider-like Decepticon may be she still got around. So, she's heard crazy stories of what soldiers woke up to after being in a stasis pod. She's heard a lot of insane ones but she's sure what she saw outshone. The best way to describe it is to call it a monster. It was animalistic in shape and spikes protruded out from all over its body. Its cone like head split into three parts as a long tongue slid out and snapped at her.

Crying out, she swiped it away and clawed the demon in front of her. It growled, moved to grapple her. She jumped over the attempt and snap kicked it in the face. It stumbled back. She stabbed two of her spider legs into the disgusting head, killing it. It fell over dead.

She crawled over it and studied the head. "You are one ugly…"

It reached up and grabbed her neck, tightening its grip. She stabbed it several more times but it ignored the attack. It threw her into the wall. She fell to the ground in a helpless heap as it stood back up. It grabbed her by the throat as hoisted her up until her feet dangled off the ground. It's 'mouth' opened up and the tongue came out again. It slowly inched forward towards her neck. Not ready to die yet, Arachnid used her webs to pull herself out of its grip. She shifted to her spider form and clung to the wall. She shot out webs, tying its mouth and knocking it to the ground. The webs bound the creature to the ground.

Arachnid landed on top of it and started tearing away at its chest. "If I'm going to kill looks like I'll have to rip out your spark."

When she got past the chest what she found surprised her. Cylas was inside but metallic spikes protruded from his skin, more metal had deformed in his mouth.

"Cylas? Whatever have done to you?" She asked. "But more importantly, thank you for freeing me."

"No, thank you." Cylas groaned out before breathing his last breath.

"Whatever."

'Insecticons, heed me, heed me." She called out to her children. 'Your queen has returned!'

Arachnid felt every Insecticon throughout the ship rush to her aid. Immediately she began moving towards the bridge. Shortly after Insecticons gathered up behind her following in her charge. She grew nearer and nearer to the bridge. She took a turn and Soundwave was waiting for her at the end of the hall.

She grinned. "I vow on this day the world will hear the sound of your screams."

She sped up her charge ready to run down the silent 'con in front of her. As she grew closer a Groundbridge opened in her path that was meant to send her Primus knows where. However, an inferno of pain erupted throughout her body as she collapsed and stopped just outside the wormhole. She started screaming in agony as Soundwave deactivated the Groundbridge and stood over her. He raised a leg and tried to crush her helm. Instead, an Insecticon slapped him off to the side and picked up its queen. It led the others to the hanger and escorted Arachnid to safety.

* * *

Phoenix shifted the rubble around him, until he was finally free. He got out just in time to see the Predacon take off through the fissure that miraculously remained intact. Immediately he started digging for the others, primarily Arcee. Last he saw her side, stomach and back were all torn up. If he doesn't find her soon she might bleed out. Eventually Bulkhead dug himself out, followed closely by Magnus, and Wheeljack was the last one out.

"Well, that didn't go exactly as planned." Wheeljack stated.

Magnus criticized, "That's because any first cycle cadet knows better than to detonate a grenade in a confined space."

"Even if I intended the 'confined space' to be the belly of the beast?" the explosive expert shot back."

Bulkhead tried to butt in. "Uh, sir?"

"Your actions continue to be just one step removed from getting us all scrapped." The second-in-command continued, ignoring Bulk.

Phoenix was getting tired of this. "WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?!"

Everyone stared at him surprised.

Phoenix stared them down and even seemed to make the commander cower. "Now, listen up. You to have different views on how a team works. That's fine, but right now it's gonna get Arcee killed. The Predacon's out there, so is Miko and out there is open sky and as we've seen before, I can beat it. Now, I'm trusting you to find Arcee." Phoenix walked directly under the fissure and burned holes into the Autobots with his glare. "If I come back and find out Arcee died because you couldn't get your shit together, then you'll really know what the chain of command is."

He activated his jets and took off. When he cleared the cavern and made it out side, what he saw angered him even more than he already was. Miko was inside the Apex Armor, pinned down by the Predacon, getting beaten by it. Off to the side, Starscream gloated to a pair of Vehicons, pretending to command the beast into attacking Miko. Phoenix activated the program that allowed him to change his paint scheme. He switched back to his old white and red design.

Phoenix landed in front of the Predacon gaining its attention. "Get away from her you bitch!"

Having recognized him, it roared in pure rage and charged. Using his boosters he strafed to the side. He pulled out his Gunpod and fired the remains of that clip. Once again it proved to useless against the armored hide of the Predacon. The ammo only seemed to piss it off and that's wait he hoped for. The Predacon continued to give chase as it sent short bursts of flame flying at Phoenix. The Mech would dash from side-to-side in a random Zig-zag pattern. Phoenix did a quick boost back as he fired a pair SEMRAAM missiles.

As the Predacon countered the missiles the same way it did before, Phoenix saw that Miko was back up. She was giving the other Decepticons a true beat down. As wild and as untrained her style was she mopped the floor with them. Phoenix had to return his attention to the Predacon as it did a flying pounce. The RDF asset quickly holstered his carbine and released his blades to knock back the beast. He shot around the 'con and sliced at its legs with the Synth-en edged blades. It did little damage but it forced the Predacon to slow down. He dashed back and forth around the bestial cybertronian giving it gashes all over its body.

Eventually, it was too weak to fight and before it could get too weak to run it took off. Out of rage, the heat of battle, and because he could, he shifted to guardian mode and fired every missile in his arsenal. The Predacon's eyes widened in fear and sent out a wild spray of fire that did engulf and destroy almost all the missiles but some got through and detonated against the 'con. The Predacon lived but the damage was intense and it made a final run for safety. Upon seeing the Predacon retreat, Starscream and his followers retreated over.

Phoenix flew over to Miko's side. "You all right?"

She crossed the arms of the Apex Armor. "Yeah, they got way with the bone."

Wheel and the others walked over. Bulkhead was carrying Arcee, she had some crude metallic bandages on her right side.

The femme was conscious and she a slight smile. "There's not much we can do about that. Just take pride that you did your best."

Bulkhead laughed. "Isn't there a human saying that goes 'do as you teach'?"

She lightly smacked him in the chest.

"You brought you're A-game, kid. Like a true Wrecker." He fist-bumped with Miko then looked to Phoenix. "You kicked some tailpipe out there, too. You also got me and Magnus to get our act together, long enough to save Arcee."

Phoenix nodded.

Wheeljack looked at the team. "And I want to remember us just like this, before the rust sets in." Wheeljack transformed and drove off.

"What? Where's Wheeljack going?" Miko asked.

"Solo." Bulkhead numbly answered.

"Again?"

"Jackie just broke up the band."

Phoenix watched the demolitions expert disappear off into the distance. "He's a solo player. As much as says he wants to be on a team, internally, prefers to work alone. That's something else we get in the military also. Lone wolves." Phoenix patted bulk's shoulder. "The thing about lone wolves. Eventually they learn to enjoy being on teams. Give him time he'll come around."

* * *

 **Derelict decepticon warship harbinger**  
 **August 12, 2014 2331 hours**

Arachnid writhed on the ground, screaming and howling in agony that ripped through her body. Her Insecticon army was gathered around her trying to figure out what to do. Then she stopped screaming, stopped moving, stopped everything and just deactivated. A brave Insecticon nudged her. Nothing. Until a low demonic growling came from her. The Insecticon leaned closer to her. Suddenly, it was on its back, its beloved queen tearing at its throat. Soon it died, and Arachnid stood up. She was leaned forward and the other bug-like cybertronians couldn't see her face.

"My queen." Another Insecticon spoke up only to be decapitated.

The femme fatale tilted her head back and held the 'cons head over her. She lustfully moaned as she drank the Energon the spilled from the helm.

"Delicious." She moaned. "This euphoria. Is this it? Is this what humans call _pleasure_? True pleasure?"

Proving how little intelligence Insecticons have another stepped forward behind her. "My queen, we await you orders."

Arachnid leaned back until she was looking at it, startling her subject. She wore a psychotic grin on her face, and her once-purple eyes now yellow. Her voice slowly turned demonic as she gave what the Insecticon wanted. "I… **want…** _ **more.**_ "

* * *

 **Finally after much delay I got it out to you guys. I am so sorry. I hope I won't do this again.**

 **I had some fun with this one. I combined these two episodes and altered the events to give some more insight to Phoenix and to start our first Arc. Now not every chapter is going to be a rewrite of the show. I only used the episodes to get things started.**

 **I also gave you guys some insight on how mecha combat works with the fight between Phoenix and the Predacon. Like Roy said, "Strafe." Next time you play Armored core or something of the like, try literally dancing circles around your enemy. Allows you to dodge on coming ordinance but keeps you enemy within you sights.**

 **Review help the world go 'round. Need help with OOC. Point out spots where I did and give suggestions on how I might improve on that. I'll take suggestions on how I can improve on my writing in general and that does leave out updating sooner. (lol)**

 **About Phoenix's sword edged in Synth-en. Knightmare Gundam had told me that the SESRAAM missile has Synth-en, Synthetic Energon Short Ranged Air to Air Missile. I had assumed that SMS had access to Synth-en without all the negative effects. Where Knightmare was going with that, no clue. However i got my own idea, may it be small.**

 **Songs:**

 **colors by flow (Code Geass opening)**

 **This Will Be the Day (feat. Casey Lee Williams)" by Jeff Williams (RWBY opening)**

This Will Be the Day (feat. Casey Lee Williams)" by Jeff Williams


	7. Enemy of my enemy

**Here we deviate from the main storyline and go down my own.**

 **I am looking for terrorcon concepts. Specifics are on my account page. I'll look you or email you if yours was chosen.**

 **Without further ado, chapter seven.**

* * *

 **Autobot HQ, Nevada  
** **September 26, 2014 1131 hours**

Gloval took in the sight of the new RDF base. It took some time to set up but here it was. The first thing that was transferred from the _Samuels_ were military forces. The air force base they were located at couldn't hold everything sun they only transferred a few platoons. The first ones to step up was the Destroid platoon 'Primal', not surprising as they were more involved with him than the other platoons. The Marine platoon 2/5 stepped up next volunteering 100 soldiers fit the cause. The Air Drive added on with four F-35 squadrons. Needless to say the base was packed.

Then came the defense system. A newer Destroid model named Hoplite. They were no taller than the Spartan, but the chassis was longer like the Monster Destroids. They were four-legged and the arms held large walls that would reach up to Optimus Prime's chest. The machines themselves were as tall as Phoenix. On their bodies they held a 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 gun, the cannon that's well known for their service on battleships. The Hoplites are also equities with a pair of angry aircraft cannons. The walls were a heavier version of Alloy Shields on the Spartan units. On the inside were ladders and rip lines so Marines can man the walls. The Hoplite units were interconnected by their walls surrounding the entire base.

In two months, they had an armed and fully operational Forward Operations Base. Not that there was much need for it. The Decepticons have been quiet lately for unknown reasons. The most they've seen is when they had captured Soundwave, and the small Seeker squadron came by. They regretted that decision. Due to the silence, Phoenix was able to host his Anime Friday again. He hadn't been able to get the chance as he got back to Macross Island only to leave again then they had to set up the FOB. Everyone's enjoying the chance for some R&R.

Everyone's was gathered by one of the warehouses watching Gundam 00 that was projected on the wall. People were seated on ammo boxes, Destroids, even on a Veritechs they had taxied over including Phoenix who was in fighter mode. The Autobot decided to join in on the fun in their vertical modes to add more seats. Practically everyone on the base was there the exception of Optimus and Ultra Magnus. Off to the side Echo company was running a few melee drills with Miko. Since Miko might be getting more involved in combat, Echo company had volunteered to train her some basics. Gloval was sitting in a foldable chair next to the bridge crew.

(You humans have some odd shows. Good but odd.) Bumblebee stated in his digital language.

"That's Anime in a nutshell." Minmei explained from her seat on Phoenix's wing. She was flown in a few days ago after the base was finished.

Phoenix added on. "Gundam is one of the more logical anime's. There are some that borderline madness."

"Speaking of madness, Soul Eater is a good example." Commented Raf from inside Bumblebee.

Before they could continue their discussion on anime, alarms state boarding all over the base.

^Incoming enemy bogey, bearing one one three at two thousand feet and descending!^ Shouted one of the Hoplite crew members over the intercoms. ^Holy shit! It's the _Nemesis_. It'll be here in a little over an hour.^

As if someone had flipped a switch, everyone started scrambling to get their stations. The Marines rushed to the barracks, while the pilots ran for their jets. Gloval, followed by his bridge crew, Ratchet and any civilians headed inside operations where their Mock-Bridge was located. Once his path was clear, Phoenix transformed to Battloid went to his private warehouse address the _Cage_ was located. Theoretically, by the time the _Nemesis_ gets there, the RDF will be completely mobilized.

'Thank god, we finished those weapons in time.' Gloval thought.

When Gloval and his crew was setup in the Mock-Bridge, he ordered. "Lisa! I want Phoenix outfitted in the prototype Super Valkyrie armor and loaded up with a Jericho missile. "

Lisa gasped. "But sir, the armor's not ready! It's hasn't even been tested!"

Claudia also disagreed. "If you fire that missile, we may be caught in the explosion!"

Gloval folded his hands. "I understand your concerns but there's an enemy warship bearing down on us. If you see another solution, please tell me now."

After a moment of attitude Lisa turned to her station. "Cage flight crew, you have permission to activate Super Valkyrie armor, and attach Jericho frame."

* * *

 **MISSION: PROTECT NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE**

 **MISSION PERIMETERS  
RETURN FIRE ONLY**

 **PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:  
** **-NEUTRALIZE HVT-D4 (PREDACON)  
** **-NEUTRALIZE NEMESIS**

 **SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:  
** **-NEUTRALIZE ALL AERIAL VEHICON TROOPS, CODE 'VIPER'  
** **-NEUTRALIZE ALL GROUND VEHICON TROOPS, CODE 'RAT'  
** **-NEUTRALIZE ALL INSECTICON HEAVY ASSAULT TROOPS, CODE 'IGOR'**

 **LOADOUT: HEAVY ANTI-ARMOR  
** **-1 X ENERGON AUTO-SHOTGUN/2,000 EXPLOSIVE SLUGS/ 2 X SPARE SHOTGUN MAGAZINES**

 **-8 X SEAGM-114 (SYNTHETIC ENERGON AIR TO GROUND MISSILE) HELLFIRE ANTI-TANK  
** **-12 X SEAGM-84 (SYNTHETIC ENERGON AIR TO GROUND MISSILE) HARPOON ANTI-SHIP  
** **1 X SELRAGM (SYNTHETIC ENERGON LONG RANGE AIR TO GROUND MISSILE) JERICHO**

 **1 X SUPER VALKYRIE ARMOR  
** **-32 X SESRAAM MICRO-MISSLES  
** **-48 X SEMRAAM MISSILES**

* * *

 **Decepticon warship Nemesis bridge  
** **September 26, 2014 1301**

Megatron watched as the last of the Autobot and human forces finish mobilizing. "Impressive. Massing such a force in such short time. A feat that should not be ignored."

Starscream laughed nervously. "Is it just me or are there more than last time?"

Predaking stepped forward in his robot form and growled. "I do not care what their numbers are. I just want vengeance on the one who had humiliated not once but twice."

"And you will have it, but not today." Megatron assured the proud warrior. "We are here because of the danger that seeks to destroy us and the Autobots."

Predaking scowled but reluctantly agreed. "I will not put my future brothers and sisters in path of that monster."

Megatron nodded. "We do not want to appear weak. Launch our remaining forces and activate our weapon systems. Stay on standby, a single blaster bolt will spell the end of the deceptions. Soundwave, stay here and private the package."

The silent 'con nodded and did as his master commanded.

* * *

Phoenix hovered on the sky as a guardian. Initially, the mech was surprised when Gloval told him use the arbor and the Jericho. Right now, he has enough ordinance to take on the entire Decepticon army by himself. Between him, the sixty Destroids below, the forty F-35's, thirteen Veritechs armed with new weapons ranging from shotguns to sniper rifle, and the twenty Hoplites manned by a hundred Marines equipped with SABOT weapons, the 'cons might as well leave. He was further assured of his victory when one fifth of the decepticon's forces made of only vehicons spewed out of the warship and their groundbridges.

^Yeehaw!^ 'Nomad' cheered on the coms. ^This is gonna be a cake walk!^

^Ease up, Nomad. We don't know what's going on.^ Prophet ordered.

^Ratchet.^ Options called to the medic. ^I need confirmation that this is all their forces.^

^Running scan now.^ Ratchet affirmed. ^That's it. Every last one. Except…^

The roar of the predacon completed Ratchets sentence for him. Megatron followed by Starscream and the predacon for out of the warship.

A Marine lieutenant started the battalion cheer. ^All right, men! Retreat!^

^Hell!^ The Battalion replied

^Retreat!^

^Hell!^

^Two, five!^

^HOORAH!^

Megatron landed on the ground outside the base with his two followers. Megatron and Starscream transformed while the Predacon landed cratering the ground beneath it.

Megatron stepped forward. "Optimus! I request an audience. I have important news discussing the future of _all_ Cybertronians!"

Optimus flew in front of Megatron and hovered there. "I require insurance that you will not try attack."

Megatron nodded. "Soundwave, bring the package."

As ordered, the Decepticon communications officer came down with a glass container that held the Starsaber!

^Is that…?^ Bulkhead stared in disbelief.

Rick shared the surprise. ^Well, I'll be...^

Soundwave landed and placed the container of the mythical weapon in front of Prime. The 'con opened the container before stepping to Megatron's side.

^Check it.^ Gloval advised. ^This may be a trick.^

^They are called Decepticons.^ Phoenix helpfully added.

Optimistic drew the Excalibur-like sword and after a moment's pause he declared. "This is the Starsaber. Phoenix, if you may join me down here."

Phoenix lowered himself to the ground as Options did the same.

^Are we seriously gonna trust them? After everything they did?^ Arcee argued.

Phoenix countered. ^Think about it. They're already outnumbered. Handing us the Starsaber has shattered any chance they had.^

Arcee became quiet.

"So, may I learn the name of the warrior who has humiliated my Predacon." Megatron asked.

Phoenix answered. "Phoenix."

Starscream stepped towards the RDF mech and looked at the cockpit. "How about you stop being rude and transform like everyone else?"

"No."

Starscream stuff straight and crossed his arms. "And why not?"

"Because I've got this _giant_ missile pointed at your ship just in case you try anything. "

Starscream grimaced and stepped back, raising his hands in surrender.

The Decepticon leader scowled at the cowardly Cybertronian briefly then he returned to more important matters. "Two months ago, some of my subordinates performed unauthorized experiments and created an abomination that my men are terrorcons. They devour energon from our bodies. Those who were bit were infected. If you died, you turned into a mindless beast, and almost all died."

"What about the ones that lived?" Optimus interrogated.

Starscream laughed nervously. "That's where our… problem…lies."

The Predacon snapped at Starscream's head. The 'con ducked and glared at the beast.

Megatron resumed his story. "During the outbreak, Arachnid escaped and was infected. She somehow survived and the result is something much more terrifying than the Predacon. She can control the other infected. She's organizing them into an army."

"Why haven't you killed her?" asked the white mech.

Megatron looked at Phoenix with a deadpan face. "What is the reason why I have so few under my command?"

Phoenix decided to shut up.

Soundwave passed Megatron a Cybertronian memory card. It looked similar to the Key for Vector Sigma but it was the size of playing card for Cybertronians.

Megatron handed the card to Optimus. "This holds everything we know about the infection, and Arachnid's location."

Optimus asked. "Will you be joining us?"

"No. I have wasted enough of my forces on this. It's your problem now."

With that Megatron and the other Decepticons returned to their ship and left.

^What!? Is that it?! They just ran?!^ Nomad demanded over the radio. ^We could've had that in the bag!^

^I agree. That would have been easy battle.^ Ultra Magnus agreed.

^Let's be thankful for his lucky we are and see what's on that chip.^ Ratchet suggested.

Everyone returned to base fumbling about hour the mobilized only to pack everything up. Little did they know, that the hills have eyes.

* * *

 **Unknown Cybertronian ship, unknown location.  
** **September 26, 2014**

The Terrorcon that was watching the exchange between the Autobots and the Decepticons was returning to the hive. For the past two months his when has had him watching the Autobots, learning about them. The deformed insecticon made inside the Autobot derelict ship that was found in the _Harbinger's_ database. He stepped into a massive room and lining the walls, checking and placed even on the floor were biomechanical eggs of varying sizes. Sitting on a throne made of Vehicons, in the middle of the room was Arachnid. She had not mutated, unlike her children.

The once-insecticon, now-terrorcon kneeled even though he was nowhere near her. He knew he was not worthy to be that close. "My queen, they have done as you predicted. "

She chuckled sinisterly. "As I thought. When Megatron couldn't get rid of me, he turned to the one person he could trust, no matter the strength of the hatred between them. Now, a Prime is on his way here, where I will infect him. A terrorcon Prime. I can see it, now. Taste it, now." She moaned lustfully. "The energon of Optimus Prime. My circuits tingle in excitement."

"More good news, my lady." Terrorcon continued, wishing to please his queen more

"Oh?"

"Megatron also gave him the Starsaber."

A look of pure rage filled her face as she forwarded across the room and embedded an arm into the stomach of the Terrorcon. "How is that good news? She threw him across the room. "Optimus could destroy this entire ship and bf done when he, if he so wanted. Wait, he might not."

The Terrorcon got up his wound finishing healing. "What do you mean?"

She laughed. "It's simple. The Autobots are working with humans. Soldiers, and they tend to be more paranoid. They'll insist on a scouting mission. Optimus will address exactly which ship this is. On his honor as a prime, he must never allow any harm come to it. He'll have no choice but to come inside. Absolutely, perfect."

* * *

 **RDF HQ, Nevada  
** **September 26, 2014 1504 hours**

"Those fools!" Ratchet exclaimed.

Everyone jumped in surprise. "What?!"

Team Prime including Phoenix with the bridge crew have been waiting on pins and needles for Ratchet, Raf, and Lang to check the chip for viruses and read the info.

Ratchet apologized. "I didn't mean to scare you like that but what made the Terrorcons was a mad scientist's mixture of Red, Synthetic and Dark energon."

Wheeljack whistled. "That's messed up."

"Who's idea was that?" Phoenix queried.

Ratchet scoffed. "Who else? Starscream."

Arcee laughed. "Sounds like something his psychotic mind would think up."

Ultra Magnus butted in. "That's not what we're looking for. Where is Arachnid located?"

Arcee growled. "It would be my luck that she survived our old base's destruction."

Phoenix placed a have on her shoulder comfortingly.

Ratchet scrolled down. "It seems that she's hiding out in a Cybertronian derelict located in Washington."

"Washington? How has no one find it yet?" Miko asked.

"It's underground."

"Ah. " Miko nodded in understanding.

Optimus walked over and picked up the Starsaber the he had set against the wall. "Ratchet. Open a groundbridge. This infection must not be allowed to a moment longer."

Everyone immediately started to voice their concerns.

"Enough!" Gloval ordered silencing the room. "Decepticons are well known for their traps and if there is an army of Terrorcons, the last thing we need is you infected. I suggest we send a non-energon powered drive to investigate and if there is the presence of Terrorcons, we'll exterminate them…together."

Optimus stared silently at Gloval before nodding. "We'll do this your way."

"Lisa, prepare the drone."

"Yes, sir." Bridge officer pulled out her phone and started making the appropriate calls.

Barely half an hour later, a group of Marines came into Operations with a Ground Surveillance Drone. It had tank treads and a pair of standard claw arms. The camera was in a spherical case and in the back were antenna.

"Open the groundbridge at the location where Arachnid is hiding." Optimus commanded.

Ratchet did as told and the Drone rolled inside. Miko, being her usual fun loving self, decided to hum the Stargate theme. Once the drone was through, Ratchet shut the bridge down.

"Are we receiving, yet?" Gloval asked.

"It should be any minute…" Sammie answered. "Got it."

Ratchet declared. "I'll put up on the main screen."

Everyone gathered around the screen as the video came in. The drone ended up in front of a cave entrance.

"I'm gonna say…it's that's way." Miko suggested.

Gloval ordered. "Head down that tunnel."

"Aye, aye, sir." Sammie piloted the Drone inside.

There was nothing special about the cave, except that it stayed in a straight line. After another half hour of nothing but cave, cave and more cave, the cave opened into a massive cavern. Inside it was an equally massive Cybertronian ship. The ship was triangular in shape and there was visible damage in the hull.

"By the Allspark! Is that…?" The Autobot medic exclaimed.

"…the _Ark_." Optimus finished. "That it is, old friend."

Various forms of surprise spread across the Autobots.

"The _Ark_? As in… _the Ark_? The most important relic of Iacon." Smokescreen confirmed.

"Anyone care to explain?" Gloval asked.

"The _Ark_ is the most important ship of all in Cybertronian history." Arcee explained. "It's also rumored to have a Protoform factory inside."

"They're were more then rumors." Ratchet clarified.

"Protoform?" Lisa queried.

Optimus walked up to the mock-bridge. "Every Cybertronian begin their life as a Protoform. They have no form and no personality. They develop over time into the Cybertronians you see today."

"In other words," Gloval summed up. "We can't just bomb the area and be done with it."

"I'm afraid so." Optimus turned back to the com center and ordered. "We need to return the _Ark_ to Autobot control. Without resulting in further damage to the factory than may have already occurred. Ratchet, bridge the…"

Optimus was interrupted when loud demonic roars sounded from the speakers. Everyone looked towards the screen to see a swarm of what could only be called monsters swarm out of the _Ark_. The Terrorcons charged the Drone and like some bad Slender Man game the last they saw was a Terrorcon face before the screen became static.

"At least we know that it wasn't a trap." Phoenix helpfully announced.

"Optimus," Ratchet called out, worried. "If those… _abominations_ have the Protoform factory then they have capacity to create an entire army."

"But don't the Protoforms need _live_ before they're infected?" Bulkhead asked.

"And doesn't that require the Well of Allsparks?" Arcee continued Bulkhead's line of thought.

"Normally, yes," Ratchet countered. "But you're forgetting something important. Dark energon brings back the dead. In theory it should give life to the Protoforms."

As if to worsen the mood, a familiar maniacal laughter filled the room. The static on the video was replaced with the visage of Arachnid sitting on her throne, her legs crossed and resting her head on her hand. Her golden eyes gleaming with mischief and hunger.

"What's up with her eyes?" Raf asked.

"It must be the Terror-en, they cooked up." Phoenix answered.

She chuckled. "Hello, my friends. Unfortunately, since this isn't two way I can't see you."

Arcee growled. "You'll see me soon and my blaster soon enough."

"I heard that you've been busy since I fell asleep and since I woke up, also. Building your new base, and welcoming your new teammate, Jack." She feigned being apologetic. "Oh, I'm sorry, I meant Phoenix. It's just that he sounds so much like our beloved Jack."

Phoenix raised a head to his head as a flash of pain reach through his head. There was something familiar about the way she said that name. 'Jack'.

Arachnid covered her eyes in mock despair. "When I had heard of Jack's death, I was filled with despair. I can only imagine how his mother feels. Speaking of which how is she? Jack's death was hard on all of us. Maybe I should pay her a visit."

Arcee aimed her blaster at the screen ready to shut the offending thing up but her attention was drawn to Phoenix screaming in agony as he clutched his head. He dropped to the floor writhing in agony.

"Hold him down!" Gloval commanded.

Bulkhead and Ultra Magnus rushed over and pinned the agonized mech down.

"Having problems with your new friend?" Arachnid asked smugly.

Wheeljack growled. "They've got eyes on us."

"I don't see anything on the radar." Kim declared.

"They don't need to be if they have the right scope."

"Now that I've had my fun, listen up." Arachnid pointed up.

The camera panned up to reveal walls lined with eggs.

"What are those?" Raf asked shakily.

"Protoform eggs." Bulkhead explained. "Lots of 'em."

The camera returned Arachnid who had filled her hands. "They'll hatch in three days. After that I'm invading LA. If you want to stop me, come and get me."

The video cut after a clawed hand flashed across the screen.

After a moment of tense silence, Optimus turned to the now still and unconscious Phoenix. "Will he be alright?"

"I don't know." Gloval replied. "It's never been this bad before."

Optimus nodded and turned to the others in the room who looked to their leader with fear and worry. "I know what many of you out thinking. 'How can we do this? What can we do against such an enemy?' I simply ask you set aside your worries and fears. This is no different than when we fought on the Decepticon Spacebridge. No, it is different. This time we're not alone. This time we have the humans to help us."

"We have your back." Gloval helpfully affirmed.

Optimus nodded to the remote leader. "The stakes are as high as they've always been, maybe even higher. Arachnid is going to attack LA to make a statement of her power. We must not allow this. Humanity is depending on us. We must fight. Not only to save humanity, but recover a long lost relic."

"Don't waste your breath, Optimus." Wheeljack notified. "I don't need any convincing. I'll get the chance to take down Terrorcons. You all have had the fun but me."

"Jackie's right. We don't need fancy speeches. We'll anyways have your back." Bulkhead spoke for everyone on the room.

After looking around to see that everyone shared Bulkhead and Wheeljack's position, Optimus ordered. "In two days we move out to cleanse the _Ark_. Make your necessary preparations. Gloval, we require the assistance of Lieutenant Fokker's and Lieutenant Hunter's squadron."

"They're yours." Said Gloval.

Optimus looked towards the RDF mech on the floor. "How long do you think before he wakes up?"

"That's a question for Dr. Lang."

"If it is possible, I would like Phoenix to come with us."

"We'll do our best."

Optimus looked towards Arcee, who was looking at Phoenix with worry. "Arcee, I want you to keep an eye on our friend, tell him our situation when he wakes up."

Arcee smiled, relieved. "Thank you, sir."

The femme went with Magnus and Bulkhead at they carried Phoenix to his warehouse. Optimus looked outside towards the mountain where Arachnid's spy was watching. This battle was going to be one of their most difficult. He was going to have to work harder to keep their team together.

* * *

 **All right, last chapter of the summer. A short one but a good one. At least I hope so. I tried to make Arachnid more psychotic than she already was. A difficult mission to complete but I'm working on it.**

 **Next chapter is going to be much larger. Hopefully the largest I've posted on this story so far.**

 **Also battalion 2/5 is an actual marine battalion and that is their actual cheer.**

 **Reminder, reviews are life. Until next time.**


	8. operation bugspray

**I really need those Terrorcon concepts. You guys got three chapters so, three months or so by our current schedule. Details are on my bio if you need it. I'll take any as long as it meets the basic criteria. So, please get those in.**

 **Now onto the chapter. I've always wanted to do this.**

* * *

 _Miko walked out onto a stage that had a massive theater screen behind her. In her right hand she held a microphone._

 _Raising the microphone her mouth she shouted. "Good morning, readers and writers of "_

 _A massive roar of applause and cheers rang out from the audience._

 _The Japanese girl pointed out to the crowd. "Last time, on Macross Rising."_

 _The screen flickered to life showing clips from the previous chapter as Miko described them._

" _Everyone was enjoying Anime Night in our new base when suddenly the_ Nemesis _appeared! Everybody scrambled, and in an hour we were ready to start laying on some smack down! But! It turns out that Megatron was being a wimp and asking for help."_

 _On the screen, it showed Megatron stepping forward and declaring. "Optimus! I request an audience! I have important news discussing the future of_ all _Cybertronians."_

 _Miko continued her recap. "Megatron told us that some crazy robo-zombie virus had devastated his army and there was a horde hiding out in Washington. After the 'cons left, Optimus and Gloval sent a recon Drone. It found not only a zombie-horde but a really important Cybertronian ship. After the Drone was captured, Arachnid wanted a close-up."_

 _Then the video switched to Arachnid sitting in her vehicon throne. "Hello, my friends. Unfortunately, since this isn't two-way, I can't see you."_

 _Miko clenched her fist in anger. "Then she started teasing Arcee about Jack's death and his mom. Just when Arcee is about blast the screen into oblivion, Phoenix starts screaming in pain before deactivating…going into sleep mode…whatever counts for falling unconscious for a Cybertronian. Then to make matters worse, Arachnid gave us three days to kick her butt before she invades L.A.. If we don't beat Arachnid soon it's gonna be 'Battle: L.A.' all over again."_

* * *

…

…

 **BOOTING CYBERNETIC NEURO-CAPSULE…**

 **TESTING NUERO-CIRCUITRY CONNECTIONS…**

 **TESTING DATA-RECEPTOR CONNECTIONS**

 **CONNECTIONS ESTABLISHED**

 **TESTING COMMAND CONNECTIONS**

 **CONNECTIONS ESTABLISHED**

 **TESTING PROCESSING CONNENCTIONS**

 **CONNECTIONS ESTABLISHED**

 **ALL NEURO-CIRCUITRY CONNECTIONS ESTABLISHED**

 **FORMATTING …**

 **SELECTIVE FORMATTING IN PROGRESS…**

 **FORMAT COMPLETE**

 **UPLOADING BOOT RESULTS TO SMS_COMMAND**

 **AWAITING COMMAND**

 **R.D.F.** **Base, Phoenix's Personal Hanger, Nevada**

 **September 28, 2014 2205 hours**

Arcee laid her head on Phoenix's arm. It wasn't that she needed sleep, it was a form a comfort for her and maybe him. When they had brought Dr. Lang Phoenix, he had wasted no time in pulling out the Cranium and doing what he could to help the white mech. A day's work passed, and the Cranium was replaced. Now Phoenix was laid out in the Cage chair that was converted to a bed. There hasn't been any response from him even to start-up prompts. It's been one long waiting game that been eating away at Arcee. She's been using a large cargo crate as a make shift chair as she waited.

Arcee gripped Phonix's hand tightly. She closed her eyes and tested her forehead against his arm as she begged. "Please. Wake up."

She didn't notice his hand twitching before closing around hers. She snapped her head up to watch lights in his eyes flickered to life.

He groaned as he brought his hand to his head. "Anybody get the license plate of that Destroid?"

Arcee quickly pulled back her hand and opened a comlink to Optimus. ^Optimus, he's awake.^

^We're on our way.^

Phoenix sat up. "What the hell happened? I remember… Arachnid! What status on her? What's her plan?"

As Arcee was going to answer, Optimus stepped in and answered. "That is a complicated story."

"It's not like I'm gonna die of old age, I've got time." Phoenix replied jokingly. He turned to hang his legs of the edge of the bed.

Optimus stepped in front of them and explained. "After your incident, Arachnid unveiled an unhatched army of Terrorcons. In one day they will hatch then she will invade L.A.. Captain Gloval and I have been going over mission plans and loadouts. We move out in the hour."

"Not that complicated." Phoenix commented as he stood up.

Arcee stood up and crossed her arms. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm gonna get armored up and I'm gonna go kill some robo-zombies."

Optimus nodded in approval. "We have prepared a specific loadout for… zombie hunting."

"Let's do this."

 **MISSION: CLEAR THE** _ **ARK**_ **OF ALL ENEMY THREATS**

 **PRIMARY OBJECTIVES :**

 **-NEUTRALIZE ALL TERRORCONS ON SIGHT.**

 **-NEUTRALIZE THE PROTOFORM EGGS**

 **-NEUTRALIZE HVT-T1**

 **SECONDARY OBJECTIVES**

 **-MINIMIZE DAMAGE TO THE ARK**

 **LOADOUT: HIGH-DAMAGE CLOSE RANGE.**

 **-1 X ENERGON AUTO-SHOTGUN/2,000 EXPLOSIVE SLUGS/2 X SPARE SHOUTGUN MAGAZINES**

 **-1 X ENERGON PULSE CARBINE/3,200 AHEAD ROUNDS/2 X SPARE CARBINE MAGAZINES**

 **-2 X FASTPACK FUEL MODUELS**

Phoenix stepped outside where Skull and Vermilion Squadrons with Team Prime were waiting. The veritechs were in Battloid mode with similar loadouts to Phoenix. The entire Autobot team, save for Ratchet, was present, each equipped with an auto-shotgun The shotguns are among the many of the new weapons R&D cooked up. It's similar to the shape of the gunpod just shorter in length and the magazine was larger to accommodate the larger ammunition. However, the mech noticed that Optimus was without the Starsaber.

Roy's Battloid turned it's head to look at Phoenix and declared over the external speaker. "Well. Looks like sleeping beauty is awake. I thought you were gonna need a kiss."

Phoenix laughed sarcastically. "Kiss my exhaust."

"Are we ready?" Optimus asked the team. After he received confirmation he radioed Ratchet. "Open the ground bridge."

The whir of the groundbridge responded.

Optimus nodded to Roy who gestured to a pair of his Skull fighters to head in first. They drew their gunpods and charged in the wormhole.

One of them radioed in. ^Clear.^

Roy turned to the others. "Alright, Phoenix, Rick and I will move in first. The rest of you move in by teams of four. Autobots, move in last. You're our MVP's. The last we need are you getting infected."

Ultra Magnus leaned over to Optimus. "Why are the humans giving the orders?"

"We need to be more careful on this mission. Our tactics differ from theirs. They tend to be overly careful in their maneuvering. We tend to… 'hang out in the open like a bunch of jackasses.'"

Magnus raised an eyebrow.

"It was something one of the Marines said."

"Let's move out." Roy ordered.

'Here we go.' Phoenix thought as he, Roy and Rick charged through the portal.

 **OPERATION BUGSPRAY COMMENCING SEPTEMBER 28, 2014 2245 HOURS**

 **MISSION: ELIMINATE ALL TERRORCONS**

 **LOCATION: CASCADE MOUNTAIN RANGE, WASHINGTON**

 **MISSION TIME LIMIT: 17 HOURS AND 19 MINUTES**

Arcee rushed through the groundbridge behind Bumblebee. She was the last one to go through thus the bridge was shut behind her. She looked around to see that they had been placed in front of the cave. The veritech pilots had placed their mechs with the Autobots on either side of the cave. She joined them and ended up beside Phoenix. He nodded to her as he quietly racked the slide on the shotgun. The femme nodded back as she did the same.

Roy came in over the radio, ^Shadow devices on, and activate motions trackers. I would prefer not to get shot in the back. Move in.^

Two by two they moved in, they kept the pace between a quick walk and a jog. After seeing that the tunnel wasn't ending soon, they slowed. Having nothing to do most of the group struck up conversations.

Arcee turned to Phoenix. "When you passed out, did you remember anything?"

He adjusted his grip on his weapon as he looked to his left. "No. Nothing."

In the distance, Arcee saw Roy looking back at them.

Phoenix looked at her. "So, tell me more about the _Ark_."

"I'm not what you call a history buff but I'll try." Arcee admitted. "A while back, the council had created the _Ark_ in case of the off-chance that our race became extinct or close to it."

"They must've been psychic."

"No kidding. It was said that it could bring salvation to us when the need arose. How? No clue. Only the council and Primes knew that particular knowledge. The fact that it held a Protoform factory inside was certainly more than a surprise."

Phoenix tilted his head in thought. "If all Cybertronians start out as Protoforms then you were one too. What was it like?"

Arcee barked out a sharp, quiet laugh. "It was terrifying. One second I was trapped in nothingness, the next…everything. I had words in my head with meanings but nothing to relate them to. Colors and images that I had no idea what they were. It took several cycles before got used to my name."

The white and orange mech nodded. "I understand. When I was first activated, everything was just numbers and orders. Missions and objectives. However, one day we were testing a new Destroid model and somehow Minmei stumbled on site. The controls locked up and the machine went wild, the entire area was covered in bullets. One of the missile fired and headed straight for her. I don't how but I… awoke. Everything became more than just data. A personality came to be, morals. I jumped in front the missile and saved her. It was more than disorienting to go from seeing the world in ones and zeros, to color, emotions."

"Any idea why it happened?" The femme asked.

He shook his head. "No clue. Lang theorized that it was a memory flash. According to him, the memory was strong enough and fast enough that I reacted to it and not real life and was left of no recollection. I don't remember what happened between the time I saw the missile and when it exploded against my arms."

^Cut the chatter.^ Roy ordered. ^We're here.^

Everyone stepped out of the cave, onto the large ledge that extended to either side endlessly. The ledge dropped into a massive sixty meter cliff, a lethal drop for a human but a jump off the roof of a house for a mech. An open plain was between the cliff and the _Ark_. The cavern roof was high enough for basic maneuvers in guardian mode. The ship itself was in no better condition them when they had left saw it. Visible damage to the hull and there was an open cargo bay door close to the cliff. No light emitted from the inside suggesting the power is off

"That looks like our way in." Rick pointed out the cargo bay.

Fokker gestured for everyone to follow as he jumped down the cliff. The rest unit followed suit, dropping off the cliff to chase their in-field CO. On Roy's orders communicated through silent gestures, two skull Battloids formed up on either side of the door while the others waited. After nodding to each other, the Battloids ran inside the ship. Once they were sure it was clear, the rest of the group moved in. It was completely dark on the inside.

"Night vision." Ordered Fokker as all the visors on the R.D.F. Marcus flashed green.

Thankfully, Cybertronians already have near perfect vision in the dark. The inside of the ship was similar in design to the _Nemesis_ but brighter colors-indiscernible from the night vision- with softer edges. The cargo bay was massive, inside was two empty sets of frames that looked like they were meant to hold something oval in shape.

Rick asked. "Are those…?"

"Empty containers from unfertilized Protoform eggs?" Finished Bulkhead. "Yeah."

Roy raised his carbine, and turned to the others. "Alright, according to the map Optimus and Smokescreen pulled out of the Iacon database, this ship is massive. We're going to split up into three teams. The Bridge Team led by Optimus, the Protoform Factory Team with Ultra Magnus in the lead and I'll command the Engine Room Team. Phoenix, Arcee, Rick with Skull two and three will accompany Optimus."

Arcee saw one of the lights behind Phoenix's visor blink, no, wink at her. For some reason a rush of giddiness ran through her.

Roy continued. "Magnus take Smokescreen, Wheeljack, Ben, and Skull four and five with you to the engine room."

"Understood, sir." Responded the Autobot second-in-command.

"Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Max, Skull six and Skull seven." Roy finished. "You're coming with me. Skull eight through ten, stay here and guard the door. This isn't your standard mop-up. Be on alert and stay frosty."

"Yes, sir!"

With that the four teams went to their designated locations. All three planning on success and Arcee prayed that they'd find it.

 **Somewhere else on the** _ **Ark**_

 **September 28, 2014 2303 hours**

 **Mission time left: 17 hours and 1 minute**

Arachnid laughed quietly to herself as she watched the Autobots and their human friends split up.

'How futile their efforts are… and so predictable.' She thought. 'They split up to take the three objectives. However, a wolf separates his prey and takes them down… one-by-one.'

A Terrorcon walked into the room and kneeled. "My queen, the ship is ready."

She smirked. "Good. Stay on standby, don't turn on anything. As far as they think, this is a ghost ship. Let them trap themselves."

 **Onboard the** _ **Ark**_

 **September 28**

 **Mission time left: 16 hours and 25 minutes**

"So," Phoenix asked. "Anyone else have a Aliens-Starship Troopers Invasion feel about this ship?"

Every mechanical hand operated by a human rose.

"So it's not just me. Don't know if I should take comfort in that."

Arcee raised an eyebrow in confusion. "A what feel?"

"Aliens-Starship Troopers invasion feel." Noticing that Arcee was still confused, he explained. "They're the names of movies where a group of soldiers boarded a ship or base, knowing there was monsters aboard and got their asses handed to them when the trap was sprung."

"That's comforting."

"Right?"

Phoenix was starting to feel a sense of déjà vu as he looked around. Each and every hallway they've gone through looks identical. He's not sure if they've actually gotten anywhere or if they're lost. They have been travelling nonstop and they've yet to reach the bridge. The only reason he hasn't gone insane yet, is the mini-map that's on his HUD. It's programmed to show paths they've already traveled and according to the map he hasn't gone in circles. A personal relief, if he wasn't so edgy about the Vehicon torso he nearly tripped over.

'Wait, what?'

Phoenix looked around to see the floor littered with vehicon body parts. Not whole bodies, but limbs, heads, and torsos are just scattered everywhere. What's worse, is the lack of Energon. The entire slaughter area completely clean.

"Holy shit. They really do drain Energon." Exclaimed skull 2, a female by the name of Mikayla.

Optimus stared grimly at the bodies. "They may have been our enemies but even they do not deserve a death like this. We must keep moving."

Following protocol, Phoenix radioed the other teams. ^We have Vehicon bodies up here.^

^Same here.^ Replied Skull 4 aka Taylor from the Engine Room team.

Skull 6 or O'Neil called in. ^We got vehicons too, and a dead terrorcon.^

Phoenix shouted to the others in his team. "The Protoform Team has a dead Terrorcon!"

"Well, what does it look like?" Rick asked.

"Skull Six, can you give a description?"

 **Team Protoform**

Rafael looked at the dead Terrorcon in disgust. "Yeah, ugly."

^Big boy words, O'neil, big boy words.^

Skull six looked at the thing in disgust. 'How in the hell do you describe something like that.'

The Terrorcon in question was prone on the floor, with obvious blaster fire damage. It was massive, at least the length of two or three train cars. In simple words, a giant centipede with a humanoid torso at the front. It had no head, but a snout extended from the chest. It sported two pairs of pincer-like arms or it used to. One of the arms was blown off, several of the legs were missing and It was bisected in the middle. Evidence of an explosion was there.

"It's the goddamn demon love-child of a giant-ass centipede and motherfucking centaur."

"Well, that's descriptive." Roy commented jokingly.

^Thank you… I think.^ Phoenix responded.

O'Neil smirked. "Anytime."

^Back on track, men. The factory is just beyond this next hallway.^ Fokker ordered. ^Move out.^

O'Neil nodded and walked away. As the team disappeared into the next room, one of the legs on the Terrorcon twitched before curling inward.

 **Engine room team.**

"This is the Engine room team." Magnus notified the othe teams. "We've reached the Engine room. What are our orders?"

Roy answered. ^Start the engine, turn on the power, and get us some lights. After that, plant explosives and set them to detonate at the end of mission time limit."

Smokescreen disagreed. "Blow up an Iacon relic? Not my watch."

Wheeljack crossed his arms. "Normally I'd be happy to set some bombs but not this time."

"I'm sorry, sir. I can't comply." Ultra Magnus argued. "I will not allow the destruction of an important artifact from our history."

Before Roy could retort, Optimus cut in. ^Do as he says, Ultra Magnus.^

"But, sir…"

^We need to be sure that the Terrorcons do not make it off this ship, for that I am willing to sacrifice the _Ark_.^

"I…" Magnus hesitated. "Understood. Smokescreen start the engines, Wheeljack prep to blow. Skull four, watch 'em."

"Yes, sir!" The named mechs called out before heading out to compete their objective.

"As for the rest of us we will continue to clear out this section."

The pinging of a motion tracker sounded over the radio.

^Who's tracker is that?^ Roy demanded.

 **Bridge team.**

Phoenix spoke up. "It's out team's, sir. A group of bogeys three hundred meters to the northeast, do we investigate?"

^You and Arcee check it out while the rest of the team moves on to the main objective.^

"Understood, sir." Phoenix turned to the femme. "Arcee, did you catch that?"

"Yeah."

"Optimus, we're moving out."

The Autobot leader nodded to them. "Stay alert, you two."

"Aren't we always?" Phoenix replied.

Phoenix and Arcee split off from the team and turned at the next junction that would lead them to their intended destination.

"Is this gonna be that trap you were talking about?" Arcee asked

"Oh yeah. Without a doubt."

 **Protoform Factory team.**

The team formed on either side of the open door. Roy looked at the map on his HUD. According to it, the next room is the location of the Protoform Factory was in this room. This is also where they believed Arachnid was holing up. This is where Roy was expecting the shit to hit the fan. If it didn't then they could capture the factory and figure out the exact numbers of the Terrorcon army. Roy nodded to his teammates and they nodded back, assuring their readiness. On a silent count to three, the team rushed.

Roy made sure to explain military breach tactics to the Autobots long before they even stepped through the portal. Thus, Bumblebee and Bulkhead were ready when the team spread out as they moved into the room. Roy didn't even notice his surroundings until he was sure that there were no enemies. The room was large, not massive, but large. Piping ran along the walls into what must've been the factory. It was grafted into the back wall were it placed. Lines of blue light ran along it symmetrically. No way it could be the whole thing. It barely came for or five meters out of the wall.

"Is this it? No way it could be that small." Jason aka Skull seven, asked incredibly.

Bulkhead shook his head. "Uh-uh, I heard that it's massive. Probably takes up a good portion of the ship. This room is probably where they pick up the Protoform eggs after they've been fertilized."

"What are they even fertilized with?" Ben asked.

"Energon and a Spark usually, but Arachnid seems to skipping the Spark part."

Bumblebee buzzed to the others. (Over here. I've found something.)

Roy looked over to see the scout standing partially inside an open door by the machine. Roy followed by O'Neil was led by the Autobot inside the room. It was much smaller in comparison to the one they were just in. The walls were lined with deactivated computers.

(This is probably the control room.)

Roy nodded. "Is there any way we can tell when this was last used and many eggs were produced?"

(If we had power)

Roy radioed the engine room team. "How long till we got power?"

^Not long, ETA five minutes if that.^ Smokescreen answered.

"Keep me posted."

^Yes, sir.^

^This is Optimus, we have reached the bridge. There is no evidence of a Decepticon out Terrorcon presence.^

"Set up Operations, and when the power turns on, ran a scanner. If we've been duped, I want to know."

^Understood.^

 **Arcee and Phoenix**

Phoenix glanced at his motion tracker. They had followed the device into a nearby storage area and were now nine meters away from the blip. They were surrounded by large metallic boxes of getting sizes. Someone was kind enough, to at least put a path in the middle. Curious, Phoenix popped open a skinny but long rectangle box. Inside was a massive sniper rifle of obvious Cybertronian make. It was silver with red decals.

Arcee walked over and whistled. "That's a Dai-con SI 387. It'd put holes in just about anything."

"How big a hole?"

"Size of your head."

"Impressive." Phoenix closed the container. "Come on, we're getting closer."

They moved down the preset path before them until the reached a set of blast doors. Obviously built to withstand almost anything. Phoenix looked at his motion tracker and according to it, the source of the movement was on the other side. He knocked on the door and it replied with a solid thump. However, nothing decided to knock back. The motion tracker stopped reading movement on the other side of the door. Arcee and Phoenix looked at each other with suspicion.

"There's no way we're opening that door. Not without power." Phoenix stated. "We cut a hole, peek in but we need to open that door."

"Be right back." Arcee turned and walked away, holstering her shotgun.

"O…K…?"

It wasn't long until she came back with the SI 387. "Move."

Phoenix dashed off to the side as she fired the fired the massive weapon at the door. A bright orange bolt flew through and tore a large hole in the obstruction. Phoenix walked over looked at the hole.

'It really is as big as my head.'

Looking inside, Phoenix received a shock. There was a Terrorcon on the other side with a hole in it's chest. A deformed, clawed hand reached out at Phoenix.

"Shit!" He cursed as he stumbled back.

Arcee raised her weapon but did not fire. "There might be more compartments filled with Terrorcons, like this one."

"As long they're closed, we should be fine."

Arcee shook her head. "See that busted switch over there. It's on open."

Realization dawned on Phoenix. "The power…"

^This is Smokescreen. Please should be coming on… now.^ The sound of humming electricity ran through the walls.

The blast door thrummed to life and started to open. Arcee and Phoenix sprinted of in the direction of the exit.

Phoenix screamed into the radio. "It's a trap! There are compartments all over this ship filled with Terrorcons, rigged to open when the power is turned on! Be ready for combat!"

When they reached the storage room door, Arcee shut it. Phoenix flickered out his blade and charged it with Synth-En. Using the heat, he wielded the door shut. Just in time as something slammed into it.

The radio bursted to life with gunfire and screeches. ^This Lieutenant Roy Fokker! Retreat, everyone fall back to the Cargo Bay! Now! We have to lock them inside!^

"Let's go!" Phoenix shouted as he transformed to Guardian.

Arcee transformed also with the sniper rifle and the shotgun holstered on the sides of her bike. The two of them made a mad man's break for the Cargo Bay.

 **Bridge team**

"It's time we left." Optimus declared as he ran outside of the bridge.

Immediately, he noticed the Terrorcon swarm calling at them from the side. He pulled out his Gatling gun and his aimed the auto shotgun, releasing a hail of blaster bolts and explosive rounds. His team turned and ran the other direction. After he was sure they were on their way to safety, he holstered the gat and followed.

 **Engine room team**

Smokescreen, Wheeljack and Jason ran out of the access hatch for the engine.

Wheeljack cussed. "Scrap!"

The team was in a semi-circle around the hatch, defending against the swarm of Terrorcons. Wheeljack slid his faceplate into place as the trio joined the fray.

"We need an exit!" Shouted Magnus.

Wheeljack smirked beneath his face plate as he held up a grenade. "One exit, coming right up."

Priming the grenade, he threw it in the general direction of the way out. The resulting explosion cleared the path of Terrorcons. Sending body parts everywhere.

"Go! Go! Go! Transform and roll out!" Magnus commanded.

The Autobots transformed while the veritechs shifted to Guardian mode and they ran for the exit.

 **Cargo Bay Team**

Skull eight fired endlessly into the Terrorcons that were attacking him and his team. When though they were fighting with everything they had, it was a losing battle. Skull nine disappeared under a tidal wave of Terrorcons. The sound of tearing metal and skull nine's screams filled the air. Quickly, Skull ten's screams joined skull nine's.

"This is skull eight. We…I can't hold the bay. I can't…ahhhh!"

A Terrorcon clamped his jaws around the cockpit and squeezed, killing him.

 **Protoform factory team**

Roy had already navigated his team out of the factory room and was heading for the exit. An echoing, deafening skittering sound filled the hall. Roy held his first up telling the tram to stop. The sound grew closer as the team transformed a and formed up back to back. The centipede-like Terrorcon appeared down t hallway and charged the team. As they scrambled get away, a massive blast door closed behind them.

Over the radio various cries of alarms sounded, each voicing similar situations.

A maniacal laugh filled the air. ^Welcome to the _Ark!^_

 **Arcee and Phoenix**

The femme growled. "Arachnid."

Phoenix was trying to cut his way through the blast door.

Arachnid laughed again. ^I want to thank you for falling in my trap and even better you split yourselves up. You really couldn't have made this anymore easier. Optimus will soon be infected then he will pilot the ship to LA himself. I wish I could see your incredulous faces.^

Behind Arcee and Phoenix a group of Terrorcons formed. Phoenix turned around and shouldered his auto shotgun

^Now then…^ Arachnid declared ^…PREPARE TO DIE!^

The Terrorcons charged.

 **So not add long as I had hoped but shit just got real. The action will increase in the next few chapters. I tried going for some dramatic irony in this, his did I do?**

 **Remember! Review makes my writing all the more awesome.**

 **Do get those Terrorcon concepts in.**

 **I tried to get dialogue for the whole team but I've kinda screwed myself with the large cast.**


	9. I'm Back!

Phoenix bowed his head as he mourned, sitting on a cargo container. "This is it, guys. We're done."

Miko looked up at the state of the art mech, with stubborn determination. "No! It can't be. We just need to wait. Angelum will be back. H-he will." Her voice cracked showing that despite all her inherent tenaciousness even she was losing hope.

Roy walked up to the teenage girl as placed his hands on her shoulders and looked her dead in the eye. He hated to do this but she had to be brought to reality. "Miko. It's been close to two years since he even wrote a word about us."

She shook her head slowly, tears forming at her eyes. She know what he was going to say.

"It's time to let it go."

"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" She screamed, crying, shoving Roy back. "I can't accept it! I won't. If I do then you guys disappear. This entire world disappears. It's so much better than the regular world I came from. There I only helped the autobots only a few times, but here I was gonna get the chance to be in every battle and fight beside bulkhead."

At the mention of his name the large green bot stepped forward and said sadly. "Miko, I know how you feel. Being with the Skull squadron felt like I was with the wreckers again, and you, of all people, should know what that means to me."

She nodded numbly and choked back a sob. "I do."

"Then you should know how much it pains me to tell you to let it go."

Before she could raise anymore protest, Captain Gloval swept his arm out slowly gesturing around. "Take a look, Miko."

She looked around at the fragment of the Earth they stood on. It was no larger than then the town of Jasper and it was barren. Completely devoid of life the only sign that civilization existed was the cargo container the Phoenix sat on. Surrounding the rock was the vacuum of space, the only reason they weren't dead was the last vestiges of imagination the once held the reality together. Other pieces of the earth of various sizes filled the space with them. All as barren as the one that was occupied. Among the rocks one could see various objects that marked which reality this graveyard belonged to. Unicron's arm, the partially built SDF-1, a half obliterated Ark. All this spiraled towards a black hole where it was being destroyed. At the end of the spiraling doom was the rock they stood on.

"As long as you cling to this world we will be forced to live in this wasteland." Despair filled the once stoic captain's voice. "At this point you're just stretching out the suffering"

The Japanese teen bowed her head as the despair started to set in, but she still held on. "I don't wanna let go of you guys. You're my friends."

Phoenix stood slowly and walked towards Miko. As he did, he changed. He turned from titanic to human sized. Steel turned to flesh. Hair replaced helm. He stopped in front of Miko not as phoenix but as Jack. He said morosely. "If we're really friends then you'll let us go home."

That did it. The last string of hope she held onto broke. Her face fell into melancholy, and she dropped to her knees, not even able to shed a tear. Seeing her usual bright happy face be in a such a dark place tore at everyone's heart but it had to be done.

 _miko_

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for putting you guys through this." She languidly apologized.

 _Miko._

"I'll let go."

 _Miko!_

She raised a hand to the dog tags that hung around her neck. Given to her by Staff Sergeant Nantz who started training her. She closed her fist around them and whispered. "Goodbye."

" _ **MIKO!**_ "

Finally, everyone took notice of the voice that seemed to carry on unnoticed winds as rose to godly proportions.

" _ **GIGA...DRILL…BREAK!**_ "

 _Do the impossible, see the invisible_

 _Row, row, fight the power!_

A tear in the fabric of space time formed and a giant drill the size of the SDF-1, made of pure fighting spirit manifesting as crimson energy came out. Everyone was shocked into silence by the sudden reference. No clue what to say or even what expression to have other shocked. Everyone but Miko, hope and joy filled her face to the brim as she realized who came to the rescue.

The energy drill dissipated revealing it's wielder. It was a youthful man with a runner's build wearing equally lithe black knights armor with a angelic theme, including armor that covered the ebony wings on his back. He had no helmet, showing his chaotic black hair, azure eyes, tan skin and western features. In his right hand he held a bastard sword with a blue blade and angel wings as the crossguard.

Finally mustering up the words, Jack exclaimed quietly. "Holy scrap. He came."

Miko cried in estaticness, crying tears of joy. "ANGELUM!"

With a flap of his wings he descended and landed in front of Miko. He sheathed his sword into a scabbard on his belt and crouched. With a smile, he raised his armored hand and rubbed her head affectionately. "Sorry for being gone so long."

Miki shook her head. "It's okay. You came back. That's all that matters."

"Unfortunately, I have to disagree." Gloval countered sternly. "Where have you been? Why did it take you so long to return?"

"Valid questions." The manifested imagination of the author responded before standing up. "I had chosen to focus on my other story _Shivering Grasp of a Promise_ , now titled, _The Eyeless Devil_."

"And how'd that go?" Roy asked.

"Well…" Angelum looked down at his armor so did every one else.

That was when it became apparent to every that he looked like he'd been through the ringer. His armor was covered in scratches dings and scuffs. His left vambrace was gone revealing that the sci fi skin suit he wore underneath was cut showing a place white scar. His face had a scar too. Running down from mid-forehead over his eye and down his cheek. Part of his hair looked shorter than it usually was.

"Yeah, it was touch and go for a while." He admitted.

"Are you okay?" Miki asked worried.

"Kind of." He answered vaguely and when everyone stared at him silently demanding an answer he stated. "I lost my writing spirit."

While imagination and understanding of proper writing tools and techniques are a must have for being an author. They pale in comparison to the writing spirit. It's what gives an author the urge to write, the courage to publish, and the willingness to keep going come what may. It's how Stephen King had close to fifty plus books tied to his name. Its how, despite all logic, Stephenie Myer pubished the Twilight saga. Losing this has been detrimental to many authors. To some it's been a career ender.

"Writing Shivering Grasp was fun but after a while it started getting harder and harder to write." He explained. "Then I chose to reread the story and I didn't like it. Then I lost my writing spirit. I had to step back and regain that lost spirit. I got my readers to analyze the story while I began a… soul search of a sort. Thus I decided to come back to an old friend. Unfortunately, it took the last of my spirit to get here."

"Then you should rest." Gloval wisely advised. "Continuing when your writing spirit is low will get you bad results

"True, but just being here has already restored some." The Dark Angel lifted the arm without the vambrace and crimson energy gathered around it for a second before transforming into his vambrace. "I'll straighten everything out before taking a nights rest, then I'll get back to work."

"So, how long will you be here?" Bulk asked.

"That depends." He sighed tiredly, the strain for getting there starting to show. "But at the least I will finish this arc with equal maybe even better quality than before. Even if it takes the last of my writing spirit."

"Well, as you can see, we've got a lot work to do." Jack said gesturing to the spacial wasteland.

Angelum bent over and held a hand our to Miko. "Then we get should started."

She smiled with elation and courage . "Right."

He helped her stand then walked to the swirling black hole, drawing his sword. As he did, he couldn't help the subtle feeling of relaxation. Like coming home after a long day work. It felt nice.

 _ **Wanted to do a little something special than just saying I'm back.**_

 _ **But, just for restatement. I'm back.**_

 _ **It'll take me a little while to get on track but a chapter will be out soon.**_


	10. Official Note and PSA

_**This is an official note saying that I'm back and a PSA.**_

 _ **There are some minor changes I'm making to Macross Rising. Small stuff really not even plot important more along the lines of continuity corrections.**_

 _ **First is the unstated fact that Synthetic Energon powers the veritech fighters and other RDF equipment. I will be adding a small bit at the beginning of chapter 6: Falling inside the black to explain this and confirm in the Macross Rising verse.**_

 _ **Two. When I added the melee upgrades to the veritech fighters, I had forgotten the HF Blades the Spartan Destroids are equipped with. So I will go back and edit all references to the SE blades and change it to HF Blade. I may or may not make the upgrade accessible since the start, but that's still up for debate.**_

 _ **Three. I will be introducing "OC's" into Macross Rising. The reason I have that in quotations is that I'm going to use transformers from previous iterations of the cartoon. Hot Rod, Hot shot, Iron Hide. Just as examples. I'm telling you this because I'm going to try and describe the characters. Describing robots is a different beast than describing humans. I really wouldn't mind if you guys directed me towards fanfiction or published stories that have this. That'd be great.**_

 _ **Four. It has been two years since I've updated this story and I don't know how many of you have followed my other**_ _ **story,**_ _ **but my writing has changed and improved some so be prepared.**_

 _ **Six. For the soundtrack selection that Phoenix uses. I will limit to songs that have been published up to 2014 not past. Which sucks because there so many songs I would've loved to have in here**_

 _ **Five. Which leads me to the fact the grammar mistakes in the previous chapters are horrid. I will be fixing those.**_

 _ **Seven. I will be updating the cover art from a picture of the hand-drawn cover I had done to a digital copy with a proper background and title underneath. It'll be cool. Also, the PSA at the beginning stating the cover art isn't mine is outdated. That was for a fan art image I had used for a while depicting the SDF-1 squaring off with Unicron**_

 _ **That's it. See you guys Halloween.**_


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